


City Sunsets and Midnight Snacks

by orphan_account



Series: city sunsets collection [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Friendship/Love, Gen, Gradual Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-01-21 14:58:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1554482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Law, the gloomy medical student, helps a hopelessly drunk teenager named Luffy at a gas station in the middle of the night and winds up with more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am hopelessly in love with Trafalgar Law and this story has been cycling around in my mind for weeks. Updates on Fridays!

" _I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."_

—Tennessee Williams,  _ **A Streetcar Named Desire**_ (1947)

* * *

He happens upon the kid by accident at a gas station mini-mart on a Friday night.

 _What is he, fifteen?_ The man had only stopped in for a pack of cigarettes and a handful of energy drinks to survive through another grueling night of clinical reports. This kid hanging on to the door to the bathroom for dear life is just another thing in his way to a sip of gratifyingly terrible caffeine that will help him get this night over with and maybe scrape by another day on no sleep. When the kid stumbles, his natural instinct to stop smiling about his potential conquest and help someone who was possibly in need of medical attention takes over, so he scowls, sighs, and moves. His impossibly long legs stride across the floor quickly, and his groomed chin falls down when he speaks. "What's wrong?"

"Gonna throw up," the kid says exactly two-point-five seconds before he does just that and passes out, leaving a mess for the establishment. The man quickly checks his pulse and makes sure that the kid's sitting up against a wall while he reports the accident. He fishes through the kid's pockets blindly, hoping to find a wallet for identification or a phone for contact and falling short. His vitals aren't anything awful, and judging by the smell of him, the kid's just blackout drunk.

Once the man sighs, he feels the burly owner of the joint tap his shoulder. "You know this kid?"

For a moment, the gray-eyed man contemplates shaking his head no, sending the kid to the hospital in a pricy ambulance, or reporting him to the police, but when he looks at his hair matted on that washed-out face and the rips of the kid's clothes, something tugs at his black heart. "Yeah. I'll take him home with me."

The station mart's owner nods obligingly, agreeing to help the man with dark circles under his gray eyes tug the kid to his car. He even tells the young man helping the teenager not to worry about his things – says that he'll pick up the tab somehow. The younger male thinks that perhaps kindness repays kindness, or maybe he's just got good luck tonight. As he watches the drunken teenager sleep in his backseat with a careful eye, he thinks that perhaps his luck is only so-so.

With a long-suffering sigh, the man dials a friend. "Hey, Bepo? Could you fill in for me at the hospital tomorrow morning? Kinda got an emergency."

* * *

He's in the middle of warming up vegetable soup for himself and making a fresh pot of coffee when he hears the kid stir on his couch. The man approaches and smiles calmly, hoping that the kid doesn't freak out and think he's been kidnapped or something. "Hey." He holds up a hand and puts down his bowl so he can check the kid's temperature. "You're gonna wanna re-hydrate if you think you can keep your eyes open long enough."

Black eyes blink back at him, unsurprised. It's almost like he goes out, gets plastered, and gets picked up by people at gas stations every Friday night. "Okay." The kid tries to stand up, but the man encourages him to remain seated to avoid sudden vertigo. He strides to the kitchen for a glass of water and strides back into the living room to hand it over. "Thanks."

"No problem." He goes back to the kitchen to start the microwave. "What's your name, kid?"

"Luffy," the kid answers, blinking the drunken stupor out of his eyes. "Monkey D. Luffy. Yours?"

"Law. Trafalgar Law." The surgeon-to-be hears the dinging of the microwave finishing and rifles through a drawer for a spoon. "Hungry?"

"A little." With that quiet admittance muttered through a wince, Law opens his dishwasher to take out a bowl, fill it with vegetable soup, and microwave it for his impromptu guest. Once he returns with two steaming bowls, he motions for Luffy to scoot over and joins him on the couch. The kid blows on his soup tentatively and sips at it with grateful noises.

"You don't have a cell phone?" It's rare in this day and age, but not unheard of.

Luffy slurps before answering. "Lost it. How'd I end up here, anyways?"

"You passed out at a gas station around the corner from here." The owner of the apartment scratches his goateed chin with the handle of his spoon. "I wasn't sure whether you'd want to go to the hospital or not."

"I really didn't. That was nice of you." Luffy beams brightly, soup dribbling down his chin. Law snorts and reaches to his side table for napkins.

"Do you have anyone you can call?" Law ladles a few more spoonfuls of soup into his mouth before continuing. "You didn't have your wallet on you either, so I couldn't figure out your address and call you a cab."

"I lost that, too. I only know my brother's number, but he won't be able to come get me until morning at the earliest. He works the graveyard shift at a textile-supply store." The teen replies easily, and Law wonders if maybe he'd just been reading too much into the kid's situation at the gas station mini-mart.

"How'd you wind up there, kid?" Luffy quirks an eyebrow at that. "What?"

"You can't be that much older than me." The teen scowls with the spoon hanging off of his lips. "And it's a long story."

Law finishes his soup and leans back into the couch, crossing one leg over the other in a bow with a smirk. "Well, I'm twenty-four, for the record. Drunk brats that can't stumble home by themselves get called whatever I want. Besides, if the situation's like you said, we've got some time to kill."

For whatever reason, the response makes Luffy laugh. "We're only six years apart!"  _Eighteen. Older than I thought_. "You're interesting, though, so I'll tell you."

Luffy spends the better part of an hour detailing his adventures from the evening that began at seven p.m. Apparently, a few friends he'd met in freshman year had just turned twenty-one, and they'd invited him to celebrate with them, knowing full well that he was lightweight, but also the life of the party. At some point they'd managed to sneak him and his other friend into a bar—"I think that was around eleven," Luffy notes absently—and he'd gotten into a fight with yet another friend of his, a chef and bartender who was supposed to be off that night. He'd lost his phone around that time.

Once the fight broke up, the girls of the group coerced the boys to meet up at a different house to settle down and maybe sleep off their drunken stupor. Luffy tosses names around – Sanji, Zoro, Nami, Vivi, Usopp, Robin –  _Jesus_ , it's really too many people to keep up with as he keeps talking. Eventually, the story comes to a close, as Luffy had declared to one of the girls – Vivi, maybe – that he was going to get a snack from a convenience store near her house. By the time he'd arrived at the mini-mart, he was equal parts starving and nauseous, his eyes were crossed, and his wallet was missing. He stumbled in to use the restroom, remembered falling down, and the rest, Law knows.

Law blinks incredulously for a few moments after the kid finishes, and then has a good laugh. "You're ridiculous. Don't you think your friends are looking for you?"

"Nah." Luffy licks his spoon and flashes a winning smile. "This sort of thing happens all the time."

* * *

Luffy falls asleep after Law encourages him to drink another glass of water. The med student turns on soft music and gathers his energy drinks, determined to knock out some notes and file organization. He keeps the coffee pot on, too, knowing that the carbonated caffeine will only last for so long. Law sighs and flips open his computer before placing it on a stool.

The man gets his work done in spurts, so his fingers itch every hour on the dot and he congratulates himself by stepping out to the porch and having a cigarette. Near seven or so, when he takes another break and scratches at his wrists, he steps outside again, mourning the humid morning heat. His sleeves are getting too long for spring here, and he hates it. Once he rolls them up, reaches in his pants pockets for a lighter, and stares into the distance, he hears the veranda's glass door slide open, and he turns around to face his bleary-eyed guest.

"Hey." Law waves before he notices that Luffy's attention isn't on his face at all. When he follows his eye line, he smiles. "Like 'em?"

"That's cool…" The teen breathes moments before blinking and turning up to his face. "Did you do them yourself?"

He starts at that, nearly dropping his cigarette. "Yeah, I did…do they look that bad?"

"No, they look amazing!" Luffy grins. "Way better than Zoro's, actually, and he did his too, so I was just kinda guessing. That's so cool." How this kid has so much energy after his bender last night at the crack of dawn is a mystery to the older male. "You have more?"

"Yep." Law smiles and snuffs the cigarette out on his ashtray before pulling down the collar of his shirt. "Loads, really, but I had somebody's help for the ones on my back."

"Woooow," the teen breathes in amazement. "I want tattoos and piercings, too." His dark gaze lingers on Law's ears before sighing. "My gramps would beat the shit out of me, though, so I'll have to wait another year or two."

Law hums in acknowledgement and digs in his pocket. "Speaking of your family, you need to call your bro, right?" After popping a piece of gum into his mouth, he leans against the handrail. "It's seven-something. Is that late enough?"

"Oh yeah." Luffy perks up and sticks out his hand. "Thanks for remembering,  _Torao_!"

The man twitches at the misnomer. People get his last name wrong all the time, but this certainly takes the cake. Somehow, he gets the sense that correcting the kid won't be worth the effort, so he picks out his cell phone from his right jean pocket and hands it to him instead. He stands watch while Luffy chats animatedly, feeling a smile tug at his lips as he hears the man muttering at his younger brother through the phone. There's another voice, too, but Law just waits, catching bits and pieces of their conversation with amusement. After all, Luffy's absolutely delighted in front of him, and his happiness might as well be contagious, even to the grumpy insomniac.

Near the end of the phone call, Luffy starts nodding vigorously before he returns the phone to the med student. "Ace wants to talk to you!"

With one raised eyebrow, Law accepts his cell phone back. "Hello?"

"Hey, sorry about my little brother." Ace sounds sincerely apologetic, and Law is taken aback by how different the brothers' personalities are. "Thank you for not leaving him out on his own. He's kind of an idiot."

 _What an understatement,_  he thinks, but he replies while shaking his head, knowing full well the other male can't actually  _see_  his gesture. "It's fine. He wasn't horrible company."

"You wouldn't happen to know if he got too sick or anything, would you? I mean, he sounds fine to me, but you know how hangovers can be." It's a strange assumption for a stranger to make of him, but he does, indeed, know how shitty they can be.

"I checked his vitals after he threw up at a gas station last night—ah, I'm training to be a doctor, by the way." He notes that as a form of weight to his words. Luffy, beside him, gasps in awe, poking him with eyes full of questions. His brother sounds pleasantly surprised on the line, too, and Law clenches up, feeling trapped by the energy of the siblings. "I'm making sure that he stays hydrated, and he rested for a few hours. I think he'll be fine."

He can briefly hear Ace chatting with somebody about how his little brother befriended a doctor, and Law feels Luffy tug at his arm before the elder brother clears his throat and speaks again. "Well, I can head over to get him in just a few minutes. Will you text me your address?"

Law asks if this is his cell phone number, and Ace says yes before thanking him again and hanging up. Luffy excitedly talks before Law can pull his phone off of his ear to type the message. "A doctor?! You're a doctor? That's so  _cool!_ "

Luffy's so bright and happy that the med student feels like he needs to pull up his arm to shield his eyes. "Well, not yet. I'm gonna be one in a few more years." He has to complete his residency before he earns all of his papers.

The teen asks him all sorts of questions about what kind of doctor he's gonna be— _a_ _cardiothoracic surgeon…a chest doctor, basically_ —what he does at the hospital, how he has time for sleep around his busy schedule, and, distractingly, whether he can give himself tattoos there.

The bewildered man just decides to show him around the apartment, figuring that his rooms will explain things much faster than trying to answer all of his questions. While they walk, he texts Ace and waits for sweet, sweet relief.

* * *

Luffy's brother is really very kind. He'd turned up a few minutes later than he'd promised in the text with a basket of fruit and a gift card for gas. Freckle-faced, strong-jawed Ace looks like he could take a guy out, but since his dopey little brother got taken care of, he's all smiles and gratitude. Eventually Law finds himself smiling at the brothers' exchange, mostly because Ace is scolding Luffy and elbowing him in the side, dragging him to the door and forcing him to apologize to the medical student for disturbing his evening. Law holds up a hand and promises that everything was fine in the end, no worries.

Once Luffy waves goodbye, trailing after his brother and sliding behind him on a glistening motorcycle, Law breathes out quietly. The apartment is quiet again, and life continues as usual. He goes back to reports and texts Bepo to let him know that he can come in and cover his afternoon shift since his friend covered for him in the morning. Bepo makes a noise and warns his friend.

"It's fine. You've covered for me more times than I can count. Get some sleep, why don't you?"

Law actually  _yawns_ , as if on cue, certifiably exhausted in wake of the typhoon named Luffy that had blown through. "You know, I might actually take you up on that," he says, and Bepo seems as surprised as he is that those words came from his mouth.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanji finds it funny that Law thinks he's an outsider when he's already so close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for the kudos and the support and everything! It's been a bit of an impatient week for me, so I hope you guys are ready for chapter two. Enjoy!! <3

" _Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance."_

— _ **Rabindranath Tagore**_

* * *

His phone buzzes in the middle of the night and he rolls over to read the message.

_ur coming to my party this fri, rite? ?_

Law groans and pulls the covers back over his head, way too tired to think up a witty response.

* * *

"A party?" Bepo, his burly friend with a wide build and surprisingly nimble fingers, is working a crick out of his neck as he sits in the break room. " _You're_  going to a party?"

Law toys with a hair band. "Maybe." His gray eyes flick up and he murmurs his gratitude to his friend.

"Woah…" The bigger man drops his hands and plops into the chair nearest Law with a soft  _thud_. "That kid's really getting to you."

His fellow med student snorts and rolls his eyes, muttering under his breath. It's not like Bepo's  _wrong_  – that's what's so frustrating about his words.

Ever since he picked up that kid from the gas station weeks ago, he's been endlessly plagued by a variety of friendly interruptions from Monkey D. Luffy. He got a new cell phone days after that incident, got Law's number from his brother, and proceeded to send him messages about anything and everything. More than that, Luffy had taken to visiting Law's apartment on Friday nights, arms full of food and mouth running a mile a minute.

Law starts off mildly disinterested, then he becomes annoyed, and then he finally reaches a state of acceptance and exasperation. The teen's the sort that wears down a person, one stupid grin at a time, and every once in a while, Law even catches himself putting down his work to go laugh Luffy's stupid messages.

"It's more like…once this kid gets it in his head that you're his friend, he doesn't forget about it." Law explains, pulling his bangs off of his face with a long-suffering sigh. After a moment, he takes out his phone to stare at the dark screen. "He's so  _weird_."

Bepo snickers behind one hand. "You're  _so_  not one to talk, mister  _dissects frog hearts for fun_." The taller, thinner man glares at him and he wilts. "Sorry."

Law reaches on the table for his half-finished cup of coffee and swirls the liquid for a time before speaking again. "I feel like I shouldn't go, but if I don't, I'll have to deal with Luffy's bitching forever." He groans around the styrofoam.

"Maybe you'll look so creepy observing everyone in a corner that his friends'll kick you out!" Bepo offers, and Law glares at him so forcefully that he sniffles. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize," he murmurs, angry with himself for being so short-tempered. "You're right, really. I don't know why he thinks I'd fit in at a group full of high school students and college kids getting toasted off their asses." He's the type that prefers to cradle dark liquors under atmospheric lights with the three or four good friends he's had for years, and if Luffy's friends are anything like  _he_  is, he'll feel worn out before the clock strikes midnight.

Bepo contemplates before he replies. "Maybe he thinks you're lonely?"

Remembering nights of low music and obsessive organization of his apartment, with charts and diagrams of internal organs and a single set of silverware, Law hums.

"Maybe."

* * *

"Torao! You came!" Luffy latches onto him the moment he walks in the door, nearly knocking his hat off and making him drop the things he'd brought. While coaxing the sticky teen off of him, he murmurs and mutters and tries to regain his balance. "And you brought  _food_. You're amazing! Hey guys, c'mere! Come meet the guy who saved me at the gas station that I've been telling you about!" At his call, a rainbow coalition of young adults move from what Law assumes to be the living room to the front door.

He meets the ones from the story – a sweet, blue-haired girl named Vivi with a long ponytail, a pear-shaped redhead with an attitude named Nami, a grumpy blonde male with long bangs and a curly eyebrow named Sanji, a long-nosed kid with curly hair and a goofy smile named Usopp. The girls lead Law to the kitchen with giggles as Luffy runs off somewhere in his house, and Sanji mutters about his disappointment that it hadn't been another girl. Usopp elbows him, muttering that the blonde should just shut up.

Two more come in just after him – a huge dude with crazy blue hair and a busty, tall, dark-haired woman, both smiling, but with very different attitudes. Luffy reappears to cling to them, too, and Law just stares.

"You look a little lost." Nami chuckles as she puts his things out on the counter. Vivi asks if she can help, but the redhead says she's got it covered, so she can go out and hang with everyone else. "Want me to tell you everyone's names again?"

His true thoughts slip out of his mind without his control. "More like…their ages."

The redhead laughs, but she doesn't chastise him. It's like she's heard the question a thousand times before. "How about both?"

Law blinks before nodding.

"Well, you know Luffy, of course. He'll be nineteen tomorrow." Law's surprised that Luffy had kept his birthday a secret – he likes to blab about everything  _else_  under the sun – but that explains the party invitation. "He repeated a year, so he's just now finishing high school. That's Sanji," she points to the blonde who's chatting with the dark-haired woman that had just walked in with a big, dumb smile. "Twenty-two. Vivi, twenty-one." The girl with the ponytail notices the redhead pointing and smiles back.

"Franky, twenty-seven," Nami continues. Law double takes at the grinning man with a blue mohawk. "The one sitting next to him talking to Sanji is Robin. Robin's also twenty-seven." She's sitting awfully close to mohawk dude and covering her grin with a thin hand, and Law wonders if the two that are the same age are dating. The young woman pointing at the long-nosed male interrupts this train of thought. "Last but not least, Usopp's eighteen. There are a few more that're coming, but most of us are in our twenties, so you'll fit right in." Nami places her elbow on the counter and grins. "I should charge you for the info, but since you're new, I'll let it slide."

Law's gray eyes slide to her, momentarily impressed. He thinks that maybe the night won't be so awful after all.

* * *

Once Zoro arrives with his neighbor, Chopper (reported by Nami to Law to be ages 21 and 16 respectively) and an older friend of Franky's named Brook shows up (40-something, the redhead couldn't remember), Luffy formally introduces his 'savior' to the group, and Law speaks up to correct him. Most of his friends latch onto his nickname instead, under the excuse that  _Torao_ sounds cuter.

Throughout the night, most of them chat, drink, and laugh. Robin mostly listens, as does Law, so he doesn't feel as estranged as he thought he might have been. Law actually finds kinship in little Chopper, who is a tiny, brown-haired little thing that's interested in becoming a doctor himself. They chat about the latest news in the maths and sciences before Luffy speaks over all of them in his loudest voice. "Game time!" He may or may not be a little tipsy, but he's smiling like the world's going to end tomorrow, and his friends turn to smile back at him, even if some of them groan behind their grins. "It's Robin's turn to pick!"

Zoro, who Law recognizes by the tattoos peeking out of his tank top and the gold earrings flashing in his left ear, clicks his tongue. "She always picks something depressing."

Sanji rushes to Robin's defense, fire in his eyes and a fist clenched in the green-haired man's shirt. "You shut the hell up! Robin can pick whatever she wants to,  _beautiful precious angel!_ " The blonde swings around to swoon at the chuckling raven-haired woman.

"You should pick, Luffy." Robin offers with a patient smile. "It  _is_  your birthday, after all."

Law feels like he should be worried, but the booze is working wonders on his system, and in his slightly buzzed brain, he thinks to himself,  _why the hell not. When's the last time I had fun, anyways?_

" _Taboo_!" Luffy shouts around the same time the door clicks open and his brother walks in. "Just in time! Ace, join my team! We're playing Taboo!"

Ace grins, but Usopp and Nami immediately jump in to shout back. "No way!" The first digs his nails into Luffy's skin. "That's cheating. You guys would win if you were on the same team."

"Yeah, what he said!" The redhead seconds. Ace, still smiling, drops some things in the kitchen before joining them in the living room. Law assumes that the freckle-faced man is off for the evening.

"Then Torao's on my team!" There's a moment of silence where no one challenges him, and Law figures that they're thinking this decision through. Since they don't respond, Luffy beams and puts his hands on his hips. "Yeah! Okay, then Nami, Robin, Usopp, Vivi are also on my team!"

Sanji yells that he can't have all of the girls. Nami slaps him in the face and says this is all for the best, because then he can have Brook and Ace on his team, who win almost every time. The blonde shouts again, saying that Luffy's got a team of people who know his warped mind, so they might actually  _win_  this time – but more importantly,  _why does he get all of the girls and why am I stuck with the muscle-head?!_

No one has the heart to tell him that they know Zoro and Sanji win more points on the same team than they would individually because they're like-minded morons.

The teams are settled, then. Team 1, affectionately termed  _Luffy's Best Birthday Ever!_  ( _LBBE_ ) is settled. Nami, Robin, Vivi, Usopp, and Law join him as he settles on the part of the floor that he claims is  _his side_.

Across from their group sit the rest, making up Team 2, aka  _Take Luffy Down Because He Got All of The Girls/Shut the Hell Up Before I Make You Shut Up, Blondie_  ( _TLD)_ : Sanji, Zoro, Ace, Brook, Franky, and Chopper.

Once the shouting and the guessing begins, Law just chimes in whenever he thinks he has the answer, and gets a surprising number of Luffy and Robin's weird clues right. Nami is astounded; Ace is impressed.

For the first time in ages, Luffy's team actually  _wins_ , and the teen hugs Law so hard the med student thinks he might puke.

* * *

It's the middle of the night when Law takes a smoke break, grateful for the dip in temperature post-sunset. The blonde with scruffy facial hair joins him, lighting up and breathing out with the same grateful expression Law himself wears.

"It was good to finally meet you." Sanji says while gazing into the distance. "Luffy never shuts up about you these days."

Law chuckles. "Yeah, well, he never stops talking  _to_  me, either." The other smoker snorts in understanding. "I was worried you guys might have a problem with me." He breathes in for a long drag and breathes out lazily, satisfied. "Then again, I thought you were all a bunch of brats who'd think I was just kidnapping your best friend and holding him hostage on the night he wandered away from your party."

Sanji bursts out laughing at that, catching his breath on a wheeze. "Don't lump us together with that moron. I mean, we like to have a good time, but he's the only one that would pass out at a gas station with nothing on him but the clothes on his back." After a moment, his face settles on a calm expression and he looks Law dead in the eyes. "We're glad you found him, though. Admittedly, we weren't entirely sure whether we could trust you – Luffy makes you out to be this super gloomy guy with a good heart, but he's just weird, you know? Ah, no offense." Law hums in agreement, murmuring  _none taken_  back. "We try to look out for him, but as you can see, it's harder than it looks." Both of them turn to look through the glass and see Luffy tackling Chopper and Usopp to the floor, easily fighting his friends and winning.

The dark-haired man nods, crushing a cigarette underneath his heel on the cement. "Yeah, I can tell that you guys care about him a lot." For whatever reason, the blonde sends him this sympathizing, knowing look. "What?"

"Ah, it's nothing." Sanji similarly crushes his cigarette under his heel and walks back inside with him. "You'll figure it out soon enough."

* * *

Most of Luffy's friends stay the night, collapsing in the living room. Ace offers his room, which is decidedly cleaner than Luffy's, to the girls. Law figures he's sober enough to drive home, so he helps Sanji and Robin straighten things out in the kitchen for a while before saying goodbye to the birthday boy and heading home.

Luffy wakes up for long enough to wave goodbye to his newest friend. Law waves back before heading outside and adjusting the hat on his head, surprised by how quiet the city is at this time of night.

Only once he arrives back at his apartment, opening the door and making a beeline for his bed, does he realize exactly how exhausted he is. He flops down and breathes out, chuckling a little at his own ridiculous behavior. Sure, he'd remained silent and brooding in the corner for most of the gathering, but he'd also been caught up in their energy, played a game, and  _socialized_. How weird was that?

Law thought of Luffy's boundless spirit, of his wide smiles and stupid texts, and reached for his phone before he fell asleep.  _Happy birthday, dork._

* * *

He wakes up after the most satisfying rest he's gotten in  _months_  to the buzz of a voicemail.

" _Ah, Torao! I bet you're sleeping, aren't you?!_ " Law can hear voices of a familiar male and female reminding Luffy not to shout over the phone. " _Come play with me again next Saturday! These guys have finals to study for and jobs and stuff, so it'll be just me and you, but Sanji says you'd like it better that way. Get some more sleep, and keep it open! Later!_ "

Law literally guffaws by himself in the apartment, sure that there's nothing he can do to refuse.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Sachi tells him how he sees things, Law is so startled that he that he practically chokes on his spit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys' feedback and support is my lifeblood. It cheers me up when I'm down and convinces me to get off my lazy butt, because you're all super sweet and amazing. I can only hope to cheer somebody else up with my good cheer! <3

" _No one ever fell in love gracefully."_

—Connie Brockway,  _ **The Bridal Season**_

* * *

It's a weekend routine now, to spend time running errands and hanging out with Luffy. It's summer time, so the humidity and heat of the city drive Law to pull back his hair with headbands, wear thin tank-tops and rugged cargo shorts, and fan himself when there is no air conditioning. Luffy wears jean shorts, t-shirts, and the biggest smile in the world, genuinely excited for the warm weather.

Through their excursions, Law learns that there are very few people in the city that Luffy _doesn't_ know. The teen can run into virtually every store within twenty miles and find a familiar face. He meets a man with dark red hair named Shanks, who Luffy says is his cool godfather. He owns a motorcycle store, and Luffy says that Ace got his from there at a fair price. The man encourages Law to buy one, and Luffy looks at his friend with stars in his eyes before the med student puts his foot down, saying that he'd prefer not to. Shanks sighs in disappointment, but laughs and pats him on the back, telling Law that if he ever changed his mind, any friend of Luffy's was welcome and he'd treat them right. He exasperatingly said thank you and was dragged someplace else.

After that he meets others that Luffy grew up with. He first meets a young woman named Makino that Luffy swore was dating Ace even though she was several years older than him. Next, he meets Nami's sister, Nojiko, and Usopp's girlfriend, Kaya, who both work at a produce store nearby. After that, Luffy introduces him to other people he's met thanks to his friends, school, and happy accidents, in much the same way he had met Law. There's a girl from a clothing store that fawns over Luffy every time he comes by named Boa, a gloomy girl with lots of makeup and lots of hair named Perona, and they even cross paths with some of his old teachers, like Smoker (who Luffy said hated his guts), Jinbe (who he liked and who liked him), and Alvida (a weird woman who sung his praises, but he despised).

Law is absolutely blown away by it all. Sometimes, he just has to ask Luffy to slow down so he can keep up, and he's lucky if the teenager listens.

On weekends when Luffy isn't in dire need to go visit everyone he knows within three zip codes, Law convinces him to just bring games (board games, card games, video games,  _whatever_ ) over to his apartment and chill out. On rare weekends when Luffy gets bored of hanging out with  _just_  him, Law relishes in the silence of solitude - as much as he can actually  _enjoy_  it these days. He would never dare admit such a thing either to himself or to the other male. Eventually, the eerie quiet begins to affect Law, and he winds up calling his old friends one lonely Saturday and asking if a few of them can just come over and have a drink.

It's a very adult affair, all quiet smiles, low music, low lighting, and cradled drinks in their hands. It's good to catch up with everybody from high school and pre-med. He sees Bepo all the time, so there are no surprises from him, but Sachi, Penguin, and Jean have plenty to tell him about the different hospitals and clinics they work at as nurses and nurse practitioners. At some point in the night, Law is lying against his burly friend when he hears the big guy suddenly laugh and speak to his other friends.

"You know, Law made friends with this kid a few months back! Tell everybody the story!"

Law lets out a long-suffering groan as he sits up and does just that, spicing his story up with smirks and unbelievable but true stories about Luffy and his friends. They all chortle and grasp their sides in the throes of laughter, finding the idea of their gloomy, pessimistically calculating friend hanging out with a group full of bubbly twenty-somethings and  _enjoying_  himself incredibly humorous.

After that, they diverge on several different topics for a while, but Law wonders when, exactly, he'd started having so much fun with Luffy's group, and just when he trails off on that thought, Sachi catches his eye and twists his head to the side, motioning for Law to come out to the veranda for a chat.

* * *

Sachi grins at him before poking him sharply in the elbow, stopping Law's thumbs from catching on the flint of his lighter. "So," he starts, smiling in that knowing way behind his glasses. "When were you going to introduce us to your  _boyfriend_?"

Law chokes, nearly dropping his cigarette. "I'm going to bury you alive some day."

His friend with umber hair snickers behind a hand before leaning against the handrail. "What? So you're just  _friends_? You're just friends with some kid that  _you_  let drag you all over the place, take  _you_  to  _parties_ , and let  _spend time alone with you_  doing nothing else but nap on your couch?"

Admittedly, in these types of situations, Law definitely would have been seen as trying to win someone into his bedroom, but he's flustered by the very thought. "It's not like that. Luffy's the sort that just kinda…worms his way in and never leaves."

"I smell an excuse," retorts Sachi. His tall friend grumbles. "So, what is it? He's too young for you? He's too good for you? He's not into you like that?"

Law groans and lowers his head. "I plead the fifth."

"No can do." Sachi flicks him on the back of the neck and he winces. "You had the stupidest, happiest look on your face when you were talking about that kid, and you looked like we weren't even there with how lonely you seemed for a second. Besides, you hardly ever call us just to hang out. It's not even your birthday." Law feels remotely guilty about that, mostly because he knows he's terrible at keeping in contact with people, even his oldest and best friends. "I think you've got it bad. So, what's your excuse for shying away from that fact?"

"All of those things," the gray-eyed man mumbles around his cigarette, running a hand through his hair. "Damn you. I wasn't even thinking about it that way before you brought it up."

Sachi gives him this  _look_ , and Law groans again. "You really  _like_  him. You don't want it to ruin what you have by sleeping with the kid."

"Oh my  _god_ , shut the hell up." He hisses. His face is coloring, and he can't blame it on the wine, either. "I really don't know for sure whether I like the kid like that. I mean, I like spending time with him, of course, but it's like…could I see myself dating him?"

"Well," his friend suddenly becomes very serious. "What would change if you dated?"

Law truly takes a moment to ponder, smoke trailing up his nose while he thinks.  _Not much, really._  "We'd be physical, I guess. I don't really think Luffy's into that kind of thing, though."

"And if he was?" Steel eyes turn to glare at Sachi, who simply laughs. "Alright, I get it. Just think about it, okay? I wouldn't want you to miss out on something good in your life just because you were brooding about it and deciding you were better off alone."

While he snuffs out the butt of his cigarette on the ashtray, Law scoffs. "You worry about me too much."

"I'm your friend. It's my job."

* * *

Over the course of the next few weeks, Law tries not to let Sachi's words bother him while he spends time with Luffy. The teen lounges on his couch and flicks through television channels while telling him about his day. Law makes a pot of coffee, hums at all the right places in the story, and gathers his files and his computer so he can get some work done tonight. After a while, Luffy interrupts himself to proclaim something.

"Ah, by the way, could I stay here for a few days? Since summer's half-way over, my gramps is coming back in town, and Ace and I like to avoid him for as long as we can."

Law doesn't see why not. Since school had let out and Luffy graduated, he'd been over here more and more anyways. Besides, what's the point in trying to convince him otherwise? He'll stay as long as he wants, no matter what sort of excellent argument the medical student puts together.

During the night, Law takes subtle steps towards changing their boundaries, trying to reach out and let Luffy into his precious personal space. The scariest thing of all happens when they sit down to watch movies and Law opens his big mouth before his brain can catch up.

"Do you want to sit in my lap?" Luffy blinks huge, dark, trusting eyes up at him, a smile spreading on his tan face slowly.

"You never wanna let me do that!" The teen immediately leaps off of the couch and onto the floor, bringing pillows and a blanket down with him as he's always freezing cold under the waves of the AC in Law's apartment. "Of course I do!"

Luffy's so  _warm_ , so close, and Law's so stupidly  _comfortable_  that he might actually vomit.

* * *

Sachi's phone only rings once on the Tuesday after Luffy finally goes home before Law crumples against the glass door of the veranda, clutching his bangs and bending his neck so his phone rests against his shoulder.

" _Hello?"_

Law breathes out slowly, trying to remain calm and collected despite his inner panic. "I don't know how to date anyone."

His friend bursts out laughing.

* * *

Law works his hours at the hospital with the utmost precision. They ask if he can cover the late shift on Friday instead of Monday, but he vehemently refuses, telling them for the umpteenth time that he won't give his weekends up, and he's the best damn residency intern they've had in cardiothoracic surgery in ages, so unless it's an emergency, they heed his words. When he leaves on Friday evening, exhausted and eager to see Luffy for a few days, he's surprised by a familiar face at his doorstep.

"Ace," the gray-eyed man greets. "What's up?"

"Ah, I just wanted to let you know that Luffy might not be able to make it over here for a couple days. Our gramps ended up surprising us with the dates, so he caught him. He'll probably be scolding him and spending time with him, unless my bro can escape." The freckled man snickers. "Well, knowing him, he'll probably try, but won't succeed. I think gramps took his keys and his phone though, so if he comes stumbling around your place in the middle of the night, he might not have your spare."

Law noticeably deflates, but tries to keep his spirits up outwardly. "Sorry to hear that." He's got his own slew of problems at home, so he understands, but it doesn't make things any better. Eventually, he smiles and opens the door. "Sorry you had to come all this way just to tell me that. Wanna come in and have a cup of coffee before you go to work?"

Ace perks up and his shoulders lift in visible happiness. "Sure!"

* * *

The two men sit at the dining room table chatting comfortably about work and Luffy, the only two things they ever seem to be able to talk about. Law finds himself feeling increasingly bold these days, so he slips in a question before he can stop himself and hopes for the best.

"How would you feel if I were to start dating Luffy?" Law's hands twist around his cup and he taps out a baseless rhythm on the table as he waits for a response.

Ace blinks mid-swallow. "You're  _not_  dating Luffy?" The older brother raises an eyebrow and scowls. "You're not leading him on, are you?"

Law, flabbergasted, speaks again. "No—I just  _said_  I wanted to go on a date with him, implying that I like him,  _honestly_!"

"Oh," Ace breathes out in relief, and Law does the same. "Well, of course it's fine with me if it's fine with Luffy. I trust his judgment."

"You don't think I'm too old for him?"

The dark-eyed man with wavy hair snorts. "Not really. You're my age. Besides," the elder brother drawls with a smile. "Do you really think my opinion on the matter would change Luffy's mind?"

No. No, he really doesn't. "I don't know…I just sort of felt like I should ask you about it. Now I just feel stupid." Law's fingers itch for a cigarette, but he stays stubbornly seated. To distract himself, he lets his head fall back against the chair and sighs. "I feel so stupid for worrying about this so much when all I need to do is ask Luffy out. I feel like a teenager all over again."

Ace's broad hands reach out and his grin is a reassurance to Law's perpetual gloom. "That's not such a bad thing! You're trying to win over a teenager, after all!"

Law simply groans. "Don't remind me."

* * *

Law feels like he's going crazy around the following Tuesday morning, so he finally works up the nerve to just drive over to the damn Monkey household and see if he can talk to Luffy, if only for a few minutes. When he rings the doorbell, he's prepared for the worst. A burly old man with a head of gray hairs and an unmistakable resemblance to the brothers answers the door, and Law puts on his best impression. "Hello. I'm a friend of Luffy's and Ace's." He smiles at the old man, and the old man smiles back, patting him on the back so hard that he thinks his knees might buckle.

"I'm the grandfather of those two brats, Garp!" The man laughs from deep down in his diaphragm, a laugh so boisterous and obnoxious that it can only be genuine. At his annoying noise level, both of his grandsons emerge, complaining about how loud he is at this time of day. He 'affectionately' punches both of them in the head and the three of them bicker amongst themselves, totally forgetting their guest. Law's gray eyes lock with Luffy's for a moment, and the teen immediately brightens, pushing his grandfather out of the way.

"Torao!" Law opens his arms to accept the hug so he doesn't end up trapped underneath Luffy's clingy limbs and toppled over like he has been before. Luffy stays latched on around his neck for so long that Law eventually sighs, loops his wrists underneath Luffy's thighs, and carries him to the kitchen. Once the black-haired youth climbs down, he invites Law to sit, saying that their grandfather will make breakfast and he should get comfortable. Garp scolds his grandson again but does just that. Ace sidles over casually, sitting at the table and snoring loudly before Luffy snickers and tells Law that this sort of thing happens all the time.

Once breakfast is served and Luffy's family goes at the food without pausing to breathe, Garp bellows again. "So, who are you to my boys, hm?"

Luffy tells his grandfather to leave him alone, and Ace does the same, but Law simply looks for a reasonable response. "I, uh…helped Luffy out once. Now we hang out a bit." Garp glares at him like he can see straight through his flimsy lie, and Law gulps just before Luffy kicks his grandfather in the shins and sticks out his tongue.

"Ace says Torao's like my boyfriend!" Luffy exclaims, and both Law and Ace drop their silverware suddenly. When the teen blinks and smiles at the med student, the man wants to die a little bit. "He hangs out with me and lets me come over all the time, and Ace said I was probably special to him!"

Law sends the freckled man a glare; Ace holds up a hand in apology and tries to do damage control while their grandfather's face grows redder and his scowl deepens. Garp yells over all of Ace's excuses. "You don't even know what it means to date someone! You're too young for that sort of thing. No dating, no hand-holding, no kissing, and  _definitely_  no sex!" The two younger men flush at his blunt attitude.

"Stop treating me like I'm five!" Luffy slams his palms on the table and shouts at his grandfather. "It's none of your business if I do any of those things with Torao, is it?!"

Law has a headache and a strong desire to run the hell out of this household before things get even worse. "It's fine, Luffy. Your grandpa's just looking out for your best interests."

Luffy takes his hand and looks him right in the eyes with a scowl. "I don't care." The teen turns to stick out his tongue before he drags Law out of the house with him, grinning from ear to ear.

Breathlessly, Law hurries him into the car and wipes his brow as they drive away. "That was reckless. You're gonna have to apologize and make up with him later, you know."

"Whatever." The teenager huffs petulantly. "I hate the way he tries to run my life! I'm gonna get a job and move out with Ace as soon as I can!"

After a few more moments of silence, Law sighs and speaks up again. "I feel bad for making things go sour during your family breakfast. I mean, I'm not even your boyfriend."

"Don't be sorry!" Luffy glares at him heatedly. "It was grandpa's fault. Besides, that sort of thing happens all the time." After a beat, he blinks his eyes. "You're not?"

Law grips the steering wheel to anchor himself and hopes his tone comes out jovially. "I could be."

"Why aren't you, then?" Luffy looks so innocent and young in the peripherals of his gray eyes, and Law wants nothing more than to make sure they're on the same page before he properly asks him out.

"Well, you'd have to like me first. You know, as more than a friend. Enough to want to…" He swallows dryly, keeping his eyes resolutely trained on the road. "To want to kiss me. Among other things."

"I don't know  _how_  to kiss," Luffy admits with a shrug before he beams at Law. "Do you want to kiss  _me_ , Torao?"

Law pulls off of the main road to park at a gas station near his apartment, clicks off his seat belt, and breathes staggeringly. He resolutely clenches his fists in his jean shorts and looks Luffy right in the eyes, hoping against all hope that he can get his words out. "Yeah. More than you know."

Luffy reaches across for his hand, smiles, and pushes their lips together in a chaste, sloppy kiss. "Then let's date!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have very different definitions of what it means to be 'family'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your continued support! I'm happy to hear from you guys, and you're super sweet! So, as you may have noticed by the chapter count, I've decided to go on for another week here! Hopefully I'll get this thing wrapped up next chapter, but either way, I'll see you next Friday! <3

_"Blood relatives often have nothing to do with family, and similarly, family is about who you choose to make your life with."_

      — **Oliver Hudson**

* * *

Within days of the  _incident_ , Ace brings things for Luffy – his cell phone, a bag of fresh clothes, his key ring – along with a friend of his to Law's apartment. He thanks the gray-eyed man for taking care of his baby brother again, asks if he and the blonde can come in, and smiles, high cheekbones lifting under tan skin. Law is in the middle of nodding and opening his door so that the two men can come in when Luffy finally bounces out of the bathroom and gapes, interrupting him.

"Sabo!" He nearly knocks over both his brother and Law in his hurry to wrap his arms around the blonde, who simply laughs and ruffles Luffy's hair, apparently used to this sort of behavior. While the two of them are chatting and wrestling on the concrete, Law directs his attention to Luffy's brother with a sigh.

Ace grins, shrugging the duffle bag off of his shoulder. "My best friend. He practically grew up with the two of us." Sabo manages to haul Luffy over his shoulder after an impromptu tickle fest. Luffy laughs and pounds his back, but Law just looks on, bewildered as always. Sabo smiles, dusting himself off, and uses his free hand to tip his hat off and greet Law. "He just got in town last night."

"You didn't call  _me_  first?!" Luffy whined, sliding off of the blonde with a scowl.

Sabo flicked him on the forehead smugly. "You didn't have your  _phone_ , dork."

"Oh yeah." Ace and Sabo kick off their shoes and enter Law's apartment after a beat, even though the taller man told them that wasn't necessary. The three of them gather at the kitchen table, chatting amiably while Law starts up a pot of coffee. After they all have hot caffeine in their hands (sans Luffy, who thinks the stuff is nasty), he simply looks on with quiet observance while they catch up.

He chips in when he has something to add, but for the most part just watches the chaos of shouting and laughter and pinches that he will never understand. It's so unlike his own home life that he can't help being solemnly pleased.

They both stick around for about an hour before Ace glances at his watch and hisses. "Whoops. Told my co-workers we'd meet them for lunch in about twenty minutes. We gotta go, little bro!"

Ace bundles Luffy in a crushing hug until his baby brother yelps and screeches for the freckled man to let him go. Sabo similarly wraps him up, but adds the extra element of tickling him to get on his nerves, peels of laughter and yells of distress mixing before Law huffs and helps pry him from the blonde's fingers.

On the way down the steps, Sabo turns around to wink and stick out his tongue. "Try not to have too much fun with your boyfriend while gramps is still in town."

Luffy blows him a raspberry before grinning like a madman and boasting, "Lucky for me gramps doesn't know where Torao lives!"

Law is torn between confusion and resigned acceptance. "Do I even want to know how he knows about us?"

Luffy blinks clear eyes at him and answers easily, "There's no secrets between brothers."

And that's the end of that.

* * *

Law's spent the two months after the fateful day at the end of August learning how to be in a relationship with Luffy. This entails a great many things that he has learned, and he's got a terrible memory, so he scribbles things on the back of a shitty old receipt and tacks it next to the headboard of his bed.

_—really messy kisser. learn to read mood on kissing because he's not always into you starting it._

_—hugs a lot. maybe too much. get used to it._

_—also get used to cuddles._

_—take it slow on the touching. scar under eye is out. ear nibbles are in. use info to your advantage._

Law decides very early on that one of the nice things about Luffy is that his libido isn't out of control. They can both be casual, can still be close, and he doesn't feel pressured or rushed about their relationship at all. Still, the notes help, because Luffy can be moody when he  _is_  eager for contact, and Law has to learn his verbal and physical cues so he doesn't grow frustrated by his whimsies.

Just when he's about to note something else, he sees that the old receipt is curling up with age, revealing his total at the grocery store from years ago, and he winces. Luffy's started to eat him out of house and home recently, and if things are as he expects, the fridge is empty and he'll need to go shopping again.

He pushes himself up, sighs, and grabs his keys.

* * *

Law shops efficiently, moving down the aisles briskly with a hand-basket balanced on his forearm. Just when he's about to check out at a register and head back to the apartment, he gets stopped by a familiar man with green hair. They've met several times, so he knows what he looks like, but his name escapes him. He's terrible with names, honestly.

The guy scowls at him, so the man with two piercings per ear coughs and tries to start a conversation. "We've met at parties, right?"

"Yeah," he grunts back. "You're Torao."

His lips twist in a grimace and he groans internally. " _Trafalgar_ , but yeah." Law bounces his basket on his hip and speaks again. "Did you have business with me?"

After a pause, the man with three earrings in his left ear cracks his neck and says, "So, I hear you're dating Luffy," without premise.

"Yes…?" Law's tone comes across as an inquiry despite the unquestionable truth of the matter because he's so damn confused right now.

Green-hair flicks his dark eyes up and down Law's tall form before grunting again and jutting his chin out. "And you like him?"

He's getting more confused with every blunt declaration from the deep-voiced man. "Yes, of course," he answers impatiently.

"Okay." His fellow in self-acquired tattoos finally nods his head and crosses his arms. "The other morons told me I should keep an eye on you,  _just in case_  or some shit, but I don't see the point." Law's eyebrows twitch, sure that ' _those morons_ ' refers to the shorter man's friends. "Luffy likes you, you like  _him_. Unless you royally fuck something up, I don't see any reason to give a shit about what the hell you two do."

The stream of expletives washes over Law and he stands for a moment, reeling. While he's trying to get his mind to catch up, a woman's voice cuts in from the entrance of the store, and she looks infuriated.

"Zoro!" She yells while tugging at green-hair's arm. The woman looks next to her acquaintance, sees Law, nods at him as a form of greeting, and then goes back to chewing her friend out. "What the hell took you so long? I should've known better than to leave you at the store by yourself. You don't even have what I asked you to get!" Her glasses are barely perched on the bridge of her nose and green-hair—Zoro, apparently—scowls and mutters back at her. "Sorry about him. C'mon!" The dark-haired woman drags him away and leaves Law speechless all over again.

As the older man wanders to the check out lane and deposits his basket on the belt, he furrows his brow. He supposes that had been Zoro's way of delivering the typical  _take care of him or you're dead_  speech.

The cashier is a blue-haired woman he distinctly remembers having met before, and she chuckles at his expression. "Don't worry about him," the woman chimes lightly. "He might look like a thug, but he's Luffy's best friend."

Law exhales slowly in an exaggerated manner. "I feel like I'm marrying into the mob." Upon closer inspection, her nametag reads Nojiko.  _The redhead's sister._

"Well…" She flashes her teeth in a wide grin back at him. "He's got people looking after him all over this city." Nojiko snickers. "If something goes wrong, you might  _have_  to leave, and that's like running from the mob, isn't it?" Law gives her a look that is a cross between horrified and disbelieving. Noticing his expression again, she throws her head back and delivers a big laugh. "I'm just  _kidding_ , Jesus. We wouldn't be  _that_  bad. It just so happens that you're the first person little Lu has dated! We don't know what to expect. We're just being careful, y'know?"

Law stiffly nods, breaking out in a cold sweat, suddenly nauseous. He pays for his groceries while she keeps  _smiling_ , hurriedly slides his debit card, gathers his plastic bags, and leaves, hoping that the heels of his shoes aren't clicking against the linoleum as loudly as he thinks they are.

* * *

Time is flying beyond his control, as signaled by the sharp dip in temperature. Law doesn't think much about such things on a day-to-day basis, but while he's hunched over the desk in his hobby room with the window open, the wind rustles sketches that are haphazardly splayed in front of him. When he smirks and gathers them under a book, grateful for the cold breeze, he takes a moment to look around the room, seeing if there's anything else he should put away.

His eyes stop on a mismatched pair of socks near the door and a discarded baseball cap – both Luffy's. He scoffs while he moves to pick them up. Usually, the teen leaves his things in Law's bedroom, where the two of them sleep together more often than not, or the living room, gathered in small piles around the television and the couch. Once Law bends down, he grimaces mid-crouch and his hand hovers over the socks, stilled by a sudden grip of panic.

He's practically  _living_  with someone.  _What the fuck._

He bursts out laughing, dropping his head to his chest. He's been dating Luffy since summertime now (as it's now the middle of November), and he's fucking  _comfortable_ with his presence. Sure, he wants to wring Luffy's neck sometimes, what with how frustratingly unpredictable he can be, but at the same time, he can't remember what he did before the brat wormed his way into his life.

Once he organizes Luffy's things, he grows complacent. He looks at his hands, which have saved lives and also ruined them. There's a whole slew of things he has to tell Luffy, but right then and there, he decides on two things his boyfriend must know immediately.

He's going to tell him that he wants to reorganize the apartment so that Luffy has more space for his things when he comes over. Then, while they reorganize, he's going to tell him about his family.

* * *

Law has the bookshelf delivered to his doorstep, along with a couple of other organizational trinkets that have to be screwed together. A couple hours of insults and band-aids later, he slumps on the floor next to his boyfriend and sighs. "You know, I'm not really a good person." He's been debating how to start this conversation for hours, ever since he called Luffy over to dismantle and reorganize the place. "I don't really like to talk about my family because they're...insane."

Luffy suddenly interrupts, throwing up a hand. " _I_  think you're a good person, though. I don't think anyone that can save someone's life can be all bad, and that's what you want to do for a living!" Law blinks, caught off-guard by Luffy's grin. "I don't need to hear your whole life story to trust you. Are you happy?"

Startled, he blinks and suddenly laughs. "You know, you're sort of insane, too. In a much better, much healthier way."

The teenager scowls and pounces on him, knocking a screwdriver out of his fist. "You didn't answer my question."

His mind races as he falls into an easy kiss. He rests his nose in the crook of Luffy's neck and breathes slowly.  _Am I?_

Law's always pictured himself as a busy man, as someone with plans and places to be, as someone who couldn't relax on Saturday afternoons unless his hands were busy, who couldn't eat with someone else every night unless it was a business engagement. He had been so used to being defensive, to being scheduled and rigid, and in the past few months he'd spent together as Luffy's then-friend and current-boyfriend had been as infuriating as it had been invigorating. Hell, just the other day he'd even considered throwing out his newest pack of cigarettes, if for nothing else than convincing himself that he wasn't  _dependent_  on the damn things to make it through every day.

Shit, he knew the answer. He knew the answer through Luffy's calloused, clingy fingers digging into his scalp and his own hands running up the teen's lithe back. "Yeah, I guess so." _  
_

Luffy's high-pitched giggles rumble through his chest in their close quarters and Law simply breathes him in.

That hadn't gone according to plan, but then, when had it ever with Luffy? Noticing his shifting facial expression, Luffy poked Law in the nose. "Whatcha thinkin' 'bout?"

He motions like he's going to bite his finger and sighs deeply. "Going home."

"You  _are_  home."

He flicks the younger man on the forehead before wrapping his hands around Luffy's back and shifting so that his position on the floor doesn't hurt so badly. "I mean my  _dad's_  house. I've got some business to take care of there."

"Ooh!" Dark eyes excitedly blink at him. "That sounds fun! Can I go?"

Law snorts. "First you don't want to hear my business, and now you wanna go  _home_  with me? Make up your mind, loser."

Luffy's cheeks puff out. "So you  _don't_  want me to go?"

Law's mind reels at the very prospect, and though he'd certainly appreciate his presence, he doesn't want to accidentally drag Luffy into family business. "It's not that…it's really something I have to do alone."

His younger boyfriend scowls and huffs, burrowing his nose in the dip of Law's collarbone and sinking his teeth into tan skin. "You're dumb. That's dumb. I trust you if you say so, but call me if you get nervous."

 _You don't know how good it is to know that_ , he thinks, but he simply plants his lips on Luffy's scalp and murmurs, "Thanks." After another beat, he starts feeling stiff on the floor, recalls that they still have a lot to do, and realizes that Luffy needs to wash his hair.

* * *

He stands on the eerily, achingly familiar doorstep a couple weeks later with intense displeasure and a strong desire to be anywhere else. Still, he forces himself to ring the doorbell, and hopes against all hope that no one's home so he can leave without having to deal with anybody's bullshit.

Of course, he is sorely disappointed, because aren't  _some_  of his family members always home?

Baby 5, his elder sister, answers the door and immediately scowls, expression full of just as much annoyance and disappointment as he himself wears. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask  _you_  the same question." She moves out of his way so he can enter the mansion's threshold, but they still brush shoulders and she scowls. "You smell like  _cheap_  cigarettes."

"And you smell like a lonely old woman, but you don't see me bitching, now do you." Baby 5 immediately raises her hackles. He's always known how to get under her skin quickly, and she's certainly threatened him of his life many times for doing just that. "Who else is home?"

"Sugar, probably. Haven't seen her, though. The head asshole's meeting with Uncle V right now." If nothing else, he and his closest sister have always agreed on how they feel about their father. He grins and she smirks, both of them sharing looks of quiet condolence. He may have high-tailed it the hell out of this house when he was eighteen, but just because his older sister had chosen to stick around this hell-hole and help out with the family business didn't mean he held no sympathy for her plight. "Haven't seen Monet or Dillinger today either. The rest of the Aunts and Uncles don't have a meeting until sometime tomorrow afternoon. You've still got the luck of the devil, I see."

Law shoves his hands in his pockets with a snort. "I'm hoping that shit stays that way  _forever_. I don't plan on being here long enough to run into the living nightmares." It's certainly not the first time he's referred to his younger siblings in such a way, and it won't be the last. Monet's close to his and Baby 5's age, but she drives him crazy in much the same he drives Baby 5 crazy, and really, nobody in this house should be allowed to live together. It's a wonder the place hasn't been blown to smithereens yet.

After all, it's something like a mob hideout. At the very least, the mansion was built with dirty money, unspoken histories, and ground soaked in the blood of hundreds, if not thousands. Their father ran a tight operation and he did not  _appreciate_  snotty little shits who stole his money, ran off to school, and tried to make a clean break from the business like  _Law_  had.

"How long's this meeting supposed to last, anyways?"

"It's  _over_ ," says his least favorite uncle, who is shuddering down the steps, one heavy footstep at a time. "We've just finished, and your father is alone in his study. How pleasant for you to grace us with your presence, Law." From the top of the steps, the man with a stern expression, tinted glasses, and plenty of facial hair looms. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"That's none of  _your_  business, and enough with the  _we_  shit. You know as well as I do who I came here to see." He deigns to edit his statement so his true thought –  _and I was hoping all you shitheads wouldn't **be**  here_ – is not included. "Is he alone?"

"Yes, he is." Vergo comes to a rest right in front of Law and gives him a disdainful look behind his shaded lenses. "How lucky for you."

"Hooray," deadpans Law before sliding past him and reaching for the handrail.

"Don't forget to give me a nice doctor's number, Law! I feel like I've dated every asshole in this city, and I just can't catch a break." Baby 5 hollers at him, but  _damn_ , he hasn't ascended five steps, there's no need to shout. Besides, she should know him better than that. When was the last time he did anything that she asked him to do? Ten,  _fifteen_  years ago? Maybe even twenty.  _What the hell._

"Yeah, sure," he murmurs just to shut her up and she shouts expletives up at him until he starts to shuffle up the steps by twos and threes, plugging his ears so that her foul tones become muted. He arrives at his father's office with a scowl, knocks three times (as was customary during his stay here) and waits for the sign of admittance before he grunts, pushes the door open, and sidles into the room.

His father sits like a royal on his rolling-chair, long legs crossed at the ankles from their perch on his desk. Despite the cold weather outside, he's dressed like he's ready to go to the beach with everything except for his feather coat, which hangs on the back of his modern-day throne. "Law." It's not really a greeting, but he's grinning like a shark and Law feels grimy before he even takes a seat. "To what do I owe the honor?"

Law tries to force a smirk and fails, instead exhaling through his nose. He files through his pockets until he fishes out a check written in his loopy, messy scrawl. "I came to bring that back to you. Everything I took, plus interest." He tries not to let his father's ever-smiling face bother him, but he's honestly doing his best to face his fears and not shiver or cower in disgust.

"Certainly that couldn't be all you came back for," the man's blonde hair falls over his pointed shades and his sharp chin juts dangerously close to his son's face in a matter of moments. "Right,  _Law_?" He says his name like an awful disease.

"I'm seeing someone—that's none of your business, though, you codgy old bastard." The tan man stands and rubs the back of his neck, eager to get the hell out of this house. "Won't be needing your money any more. I know I renounced my rights to the family fortune the day I left, but I didn't  _want_  your shitty cash anyways. I don't plan on coming back here ever again."

"And if I refuse?" His father says. Law's steps halt.

Sharp gray eyes narrow on the man with skin too dark for his yellow hair. "I'll end you, old man."

"You're such a handful." Doflamingo muses happily. "It's such a shame, you know. I ought to kill you, really. You know too much."

Law summons all of his confidence, wit, and bitterness to retort, "But you won't. Even if you  _tried_ , I'd be onto you before you could pull it off. Somehow, some way, I'd just keep on living. Besides, even if you  _did_  succeed, I'd just come back from the grave, rip off your balls, and run this place into the ground."

His father throws his head back and laughs a full-bodied laugh. "Such a waste, really. You're sure you won't reconsider joining us? I'll never  _forgive_  you, of course, but you're truly unsuited for a profession where you keep people  _alive_."

Law forces himself not to show any physical weaknesses and smirks back at his father one last time, flinging him the middle finger. "Wish you the worst of health, asshole," he mutters on his way out of the door, and he hears his father snicker in response as the heavy door once again slides shut.

* * *

When he returns to the apartment, exhausted beyond belief, Luffy is standing in front of the fridge, stuffing his face. Noting his obvious frustration and fatigue, the younger man scowls and moves to his side instinctively. "Hungry?"

Law chuckles sullenly. "If every problem could be solved with food, my job would be a hell of a lot easier." His stomach turns at the very thought of eating. "I just need to take a bath and forget this day ever happened." Luffy continues to inspect him with his grimy hands until Law swats him off, catching a whiff of the teenager and grimacing. "You need to take one too,  _ugh_." He feels tethered back to his everyday reality by such a mundane thing, and he chuckles lowly. "C'mon. I'll wash you up."

Law knows that Luffy can sense what a bad mood he's in because he doesn't fight him about the bath, and he even jumps up to say, "I'll wash your hair first!" It's almost an incredibly early Christmas miracle.

* * *

The bath in the apartment isn't really big enough to fit both of them, especially since Law's legs are long enough for modeling and Luffy has a tendency to splash water and bubbles like a child, but they've made it work before, and they'll make it work again.

Once Law's settled in the water, earrings removed and eyes closed as he leans against Luffy's chest, he relaxes. Luffy's playful hands splash water on his face from time to time, but mostly, he stays focused as he lathers his dark locks and traces his fingers across the older man's tattoos in awe. For about the hundredth time, he asks Law if he'll design a tattoo for him, and Law says that he will soon, but he won't put it on Luffy until the teen moves out of his grandfather's house. Once he takes the handheld showerhead down and warns Law that he'll be rinsing his hair out, the doctor-in training begrudgingly lifts himself from the warm water to reciprocate the action languidly. Luffy winces and gripes about his rough touch as he washes his hair, but he ignores it to get the shit over with quickly so they can sink back into the tub. His legs are warm as he uses shampoo and conditioner with his nails to get all the gunk out of Luffy's hair, but that's the only plus of crouching against the slippery faux-porcelain.

They drag themselves out after an uncomfortable but warm half-hour, dripping wet in their respective towels. Law dries Luffy off because the younger man is absolute shit at the task and pulls him onto the bed after he changes into a robe and Luffy throws on a pair of comfortable sweatpants without underwear.

"Did you have fun at your dad's house?" Luffy twists his head after he squirms around his back, hair damp and eyes bright.

"Hell no," Law murmurs wearily. "But I'm never going back there. I'll swear it in blood if I have to."

"Jeez, you're so  _extreme,_ " huffs Luffy. Law can't help chuckling lowly back in return. "But it's better now, right? You're clean, and for whatever weirdo reason, that makes you happy. Besides, this was always your home to me."

Law grows very still before Luffy's lips childishly press against the sharp jut of his spine and the younger man clings around his long legs. He huffs, scowls, tries to stay angry, and fails. After a moment, he hums contentedly and curls his long fingers around Luffy's. "Yeah. I guess you're right."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Social functions and holidays are mostly a load of bullshit in Law's opinion. _Mostly_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your kind words, your kudos, and stickin' around here with me! I think I may finish this thing up around chapter 10 or 11 now, but I'm not putting a chapter count on it until I know for sure! Hope that you continue to enjoy the ride; here's chapter 5!!

"The holidays stress people out so much. I suggest you keep it simple and try to have as much fun as you can."

— **Giada De Laurentiis**

* * *

The tail end of the year had been full of parties for Luffy and his friends, what with all of the holidays. Luffy had tried to drag Law to so many of them that he eventually began to refuse so that he didn't go crazy from all of the social interaction.

Once January is in full swing, Law finds himself at the apartment alone for a change, and he begins to hatch a plan that he hopes will not turn out horrendously. Luffy's just started his new job at a sports center, so the surgeon-in-training gains enough energy to finish his clinical reports  _early_  and makes a few phone calls, having the work schedules of most of his friends memorized. He can only hope his plans don't backfire and that Luffy is as eager to meet new people as he usually is.

* * *

The four regulars arrive on time, but they are busy trying to guess the occasion. Jean guesses that Law's going to tell them he was nominated as intern of the year. Penguin uses that guess as his platform, taking it one step further and guessing that Law has gotten some sort of recommendation from the surgeon general of the nation, allowing him to become the country's youngest cardiothoracic surgeon practitioner. Bepo apologizes as he jumps in to correct them, saying that those things are impossible, but he offers no guess as to what the big news could be. Sachi, who stands around looking smug and just  _waits_ , is probably the only one who has any clue what they're here for tonight.

Once Law gets them started with a few drinks and snacks, his boyfriend barrels in and runs into his co-worker by mistake, nearly toppling the burly man over with his misguided hug. "Torao, you got a lot bigger and harrier since I saw you a couple days ago!"

"That's because  _I'm_  over here," Law corrects him with a derisive snort. Luffy looks between the man he'd pinned to the floor and the lean medical student and awakening dawns on his expression. "That's Bepo, my friend from work. I've told you about him before."

Luffy immediately brightens, clambering to his feet and offering Bepo a hand with a sunny smile. "Hiya! I'm Luffy! Nice to meetcha!"

"I'm sorry," Bepo apologizes for being  _tipped_  over, and his friends all groan. Luffy simply tilts his head in confusion, but does not linger on this. "It's nice to meet you too."

Three of his four closest friends gape in bewilderment as Law introduces Luffy as his significant other, being sure to fix Sachi with his coolest glare as he does so. After they spend a fair amount of time being shocked, they start to smile and gather around Luffy, absolutely enchanted by his sunny mannerisms. Luffy grins and corrals the grown men into the living room, where he plays a better host than the owner of the apartment.

Eventually, Penguin pulls Law aside with a toothy grin, a laugh tugging at the corner of his lips. "So, you really  _did_  go out with that kid you were telling us about after all." From their view in the kitchen, they can see Luffy laughing and rough housing with their taller and bulkier friends. "He's really…something."

Law scoffs but his lips involuntarily twitch up as well. "Yeah. He is."

Penguin elbows Law in the gut, startling a cough out of his throat. "You dirty dog you. Look at you, mister cynic, with a  _long term_  fling going on."

The taller man bristles, the smile promptly slipping off of his face. "It's not—you know, why do I even bother."

His friend sighs. "I'm just  _kidding_ , Law." Penguin leans on the countertop with a relaxed grin. "I'm just happy for you, that's all! I mean, we never would have expected you to date somebody so…" His eyes are hooded underneath his cap as he glances at Luffy, who is currently trying to convince the rest of their friends to give him piggyback rides. "Energetic."

Snorting incredulously, Law folds his arms across his chest. "Y'know, sometimes I wonder about how it happened, too." His lips curl while he's trapped in thought.

"But you're having a good time. That's what matters." After that last line, he winks and Law shudders; they both chuckle at the exchange. Penguin raises his glass and hurries back to the flock, slamming into Luffy enthusiastically and  _offering_  to give him the piggyback ride he's been begging for. The teen jumps as high as he can, pumping his fist with stars in his dark eyes.

After Luffy's finished horsing around, he listens to them talk about things that they do with a keen interest, mouth full of  _oohs_  and  _ahhs_. Bepo laughs and apologizes at intermittent intervals, and Luffy winds up calling him a bear-man with a heart of glass. Sachi, in particular, revels in that hilarity for the rest of the night. Jean smiles amidst the group, making observations of group dynamics and subtleties.

When things get quieter, he's the one to suggest a movie. He's also the first to note the way Luffy and Law bicker softly before they pick at each other's hair and the younger male clambers into the elder's lap with a satisfied  _thunk_.

Law huffs through his nose before he musses Luffy's hair. Luffy turns to ask Sachi what the movie's about excitedly, ignoring his boyfriend's hand and whatever he's muttering under his breath. Sachi smiles and says it's some horror movie he's wanted to watch for a while, and Luffy jumps in his seat so quickly that he runs into Law's chin. Law winces, long fingers running through his goatee while he glowers down at Luffy.

The younger man doesn't apologize. Penguin, looking on, snickers breathlessly and Law fixes him with a look so quickly that he snaps his mouth shut and tries very hard to keep tears of mirth from his eyes.

Jean loves his friends dearly, wouldn't trade them for the world, but once the movie starts, he solidly requests, "Be quiet so that we can all hear the movie, please," and everyone listens.

Everyone but Luffy, that is, who hollers back, "Okay!" Law promptly hits him over the head and his friends try to keep their laughter at a low level.

* * *

At some point during the movie, Luffy had drifted off, sleepy after work and bored by the main characters' actions. Law had carded his hands through the teen's hair and carried him to bed after the credits started to roll. His friends started to head for their respective homes after that, save for Sachi.

Sachi waits for him out on the veranda after everyone is gone and Law groans aloud.

"Go home, you asshole."

The man with auburn hair has curved lips and raised brows. "What if I'm too drunk to drive?" Law fixes him with  _the_  look, and Sachi's chest rumbles with laughter. "I know, I know. I haven't had that much to drink. I'm just fucking with you."

"I already know what you're going to say, so don't say anything." Law drags two folding chairs out of a closet, offers one to his friend (who refuses), and flops into his own bonelessly.

"And how're you gonna stop me from  _talkin'_ , jerkoff?" Sachi's eyes flick to Law's fingers, which are fiddling with a lighter. "You're not gonna smoke? You haven't all night." After a beat, the darker-skinned man mutters. "What'd you say?"

"I  _said_  that I'm trying to quit," grouses Law lowly.

Sachi turns in awe, jaw hanging open and letting puffs of air come out in the cold air. "My god. Who are you and what have you done with my friend?" Law kicks him in the shin and Sachi clasps his injured leg, wincing. "Shit! Hold back a little, why don't you?"

"Never," he sardonically counters.

Sachi blinks, shakily regaining his breath in sharp inhales and exhales. "I was gonna congratulate you, but I guess I'll take it back, dick."

Snorting, the taller man retorts, "Good. I didn't do anything worthy of praise."

The auburn-haired man rolls his eyes. "Sure."

Law fixes him with a sour look. "Your tone says otherwise."

Giggles pull the corners of his lips up. "You  _really_  don't think this is progress?" He shivers in the cold air, bundling himself deeper in his layers and talking through his scarf. "You've been outta your dad's house for  _ages_ , but you never really mentally  _left_ , y'know? You're in the first  _healthy_ relationship of your life, and you look good, man. Hell, you'll even be finished with clinicals in year or two. Maybe it's a little sappy, but I'm proud of you."

Turning slowly, the darker-skinned male furrows his brow and jostles his leg restlessly. "Just a  _little_?"

Sachi snorts. "Okay,  _very sappy_ —fine." After he rubs his arms, he sticks his bare fingers in his coat pockets. "The point is, you're not brooding, you're not drinking yourself to death, and you're not hanging out in seedy bars and the back of dirty tattoo parlors looking for a fight."

Law's lower lip juts out at the description. "You make it sound like I was a crazy junkie." His friend raises a single eyebrow. "I was  _wild_ , but I wasn't  _insane_ , Sachi. What the hell."

"Okay, maybe you weren't," Sachi offers with a shrug. "But your  _boyfriend_  was."

Gray eyes fill with rage in an instant, tan neck snapping as he glares, legs coming unfolded and hair at the back of his neck standing on end. "He was  _not_  my boyfriend."

He holds up his hands. "Sorry. I crossed the line. That was shitty of me."

"No, it's…" Law drawls off, scowling. "I shouldn't have gotten so pissy. I agree that he was an asshole. A fucking insane, shitty asshole, and an all around terrible idea." He chortled bitterly.

A thought occurs to Sachi as he gazes into the distance from the veranda, freezing his ass off. Law looks comfortable – he's dressed appropriately for the weather, and has proclaimed on several occasions that he loves the winter – but that's beside the point. He fixes his glasses-framed gaze on his friend, who's still sitting next to an empty folding chair. "Are you gonna tell Luffy about him some day?"

Law contemplates the question for a while, leaning back in the chair until two of the legs came off of the cement and his head hits the wall of his apartment. "Dunno. If I feel like it's relevant, I guess. It's not like it's some damn secret. Besides," he snorts through his nose and smirks at long last. "I don't really think Luffy would give a shit."

Sachi throws his head back and guffaws gleefully. "You're right about that." After shuddering and pushing up his glasses, he speaks again. "Well, since we've gotten that sap-fest out of the way, could we  _please_  go back inside? If I'd known you were quitting, I would've stayed in there in the first place."

"Ha," Law jaunts. "That'll teach you to be considerate of  _me_ , won't it, then."

"You are a terrible friend and I hate your guts."

"Thank you."

* * *

The weeks until February pass, and Law's time at the hospital fills his days with dread and terrible moods. There are women of all ages tittering about, falling for his false charms, smirks, and dry jokes, day in and day out, Monday through Thursday and sometimes Sundays.

There's only one patient consultation he's even remotely interested in attending (out of the many he  _must_ attend), because the old woman in question has a wheezy, lively laugh, and she appreciates his sarcasm. He follows the doctor he's currently shadowing, hiding a yawn behind a curled fist and hoping that his pair of nice tennis shoes do not come untied along the way to exam room 5.

Kokoro and Law greet each other like old friends, with a lazy nod on the behalf of the male and a wily smile from the old woman. The doctor rambles for a couple minutes before something on his person beeps, and he excuses himself, saying that Law can take care of the rest, that he's a very trusted member of the hospital staff,  _blah, blah, blah_. After that, he flies out of the room with a smile, leaving the bag-eyed man together with the jolly woman.

"Hey," Law says, finally comfortable now that they're alone. "How's it going?"

She snickers hoarsely, her long, dyed-blonde braids waving around her wide waist with the motion. "The usual. Everything's crashin' these days, kid. Liver. Heart. Bones. Ha!" Fixing him with a look under her heavily powdered eyelids, she flashes her teeth in a grin. "Of course, y'already knew that."

He takes the blood pressure cuff off of the hook near the computer monitor and slumps into the rolling chair, waiting for her to offer her arm. "You need to lay off the alcohol, old woman. You're not getting any younger."

With her free hand, Kokoro reaches out and ruffles his hair, which is pulled back by a headband. He grumbles in irritation and she snickers in success. "Your bedside manner's still  _terrible_."

"That's why I don't want to  _be_  a physician. That shit's for the birds." Although he knows his language is hardly fitted for talking to patients, she's a familiar one, and she prefers his natural attitude, despite her commentary. "One thirty-seven over eighty-one. Not too bad, for you. Stop skimping on your meds and you'll be fine."

"An' give up my afternoon bourbon?" Her lacquered lips part with peals of laughter. "Never."

Law snorts. "You're a menace. How's your chest feeling?"

Kokoro shrugs and he sighs, moving to grab a pair of gloves and a stethoscope. He parts her dressing gown methodically, presses the cool metal to her chest without so much as a warning and listens to her heartbeat. After half a minute passes, he removes the listening tool and nods. "Sounds good to me. Your surgery went well, and other than the other problems you have that are  _definitely_  your fault, because you're a terrible patient, you're free to go."

She snickers and pulls the gown back over her shoulders by force of habit. "Thanks. Even if you're a brat, you're a much better doc than that other fool, Mr. Trafalgar."

He repositions his lab coat, checks the tie on his scrubs, and snorts. "That'll be  _Doctor_  to you soon enough, hag."

After she throws back her head to laugh again, she talks again. "Doin' anything special for Valentines,  _Doctor_  Trafalgar?"

Law's back goes straight, his mind goes blank, and he fills with new dread. Suddenly, the women coming in and out of the hospital – mostly older women and some rare young ones – fawning over him, make so much more  _sense_. "I forgot that god-awful holiday was coming up soon."

"I'll take that as a  _no_ , then." Kokoro smiles. "Word on the street's that  _you've_  got somebody special!"

The man groans. "Is  _nothing_  sacred in this city?"

Her pointed teeth part so she can laugh from the pit of her gut. "Word travels fast, brat! Well, not fast enough to tell me who it is that you're seein'."

Law jabs notes into her file on the computer angrily and gives her a look from the corner of his eyes. "No way, hag."

Kokoro snickers again. "You ol' sourpuss. You're givin' yourself wrinkles way too young."

"With wrinkles come wisdom, or so they say," Law quips. Kokoro laughs. "To answer your question, I don't know. I might have the night shift here for the holiday, since everyone's gonna want the day off. It'll be good extra cash."

"You haven't got a single romantic bone in your body, kid," snickers the blonde old woman. "Don't you think your lady friend'll wanna be wined and dined every once in a while?"

He doesn't really have the patience to tell her that he's dating a dude, or that Luffy gets  _wined and dined_  on his nickel every two weeks. "I dunno. I don't think they're really into the whole candlelight dinner schtick." As a matter of fact, he's about 99% certain that Luffy would vomit if he ever brought the prospect up. Even if he likes to hug and cuddle and do all the other dumb shit, the cheesy, picture book romance stuff makes him want to shove a boot down his throat. "If I take them somewhere new to eat on a date, that'd make them happier than trinkets, flowers, or chocolate. The person I'm seeing is really…practical." That's  _absolutely_  the last word he'd use to describe Luffy, but it'll do, for now.

"Do  _that_ , then." Kokoro offers easily, lips twisted up. "Not every gal's gonna like the same stuff. As long as you do something that reminds 'em that you care, that's all that matters."

Before he can interject to say,  _I shouldn't have to do that kind of thing so that he knows I care about him_ , he takes a moment to think, and he realizes that she honestly has a point.

* * *

He talks to one of the nurses when they are both off-duty about restaurants in the area. Marie is a sweet young woman with a dark bob and an optimistic disposition about medical services. She believes in the power of science and medicine, regardless of the politics that keep hospitals afloat, and Law admires that about her. She tells him about a hole-in-the-wall barbeque place a few miles outside of the city, and he opens a blank file on his phone to write the name of the place down, intending to swing by it on his way back to the apartment.

Once he thanks her, he hurries to the changing room to put on his casual clothes, discard his tennis shoes in favor of his boots with two-inch heels, and get to his car so he can dial in the name of the place on his GPS and drive over there. The drive is easy because the place is out of the way, and it's not very far, so he can avoid the highway (even though it's nine at night – it's a psychological thing.)

After he parks, Law's heels click against the pavement, faux-fur coat wrapped around his shoulders, a thick scarf twisted around his neck, and patterned jeans covering his long legs. Standing there on the curb reading the menu that's posted next to the door, he looks like a misplaced model lost at a place that may have been an old gas station, or an abandoned law firm. He tugs his hat over his messy hair tighter after he's given the menu a seal of approval and pushes the door open. A chime above the entrance sounds when he walks in, surveying the place. Just as a hostess with green hair is about to cheerfully ask him if he needs anything, he catches gazes with someone unfortunately familiar to him and he stands shock still, contemplating gliding right the hell back out of the door without saying a word to the poor girl.

"Well?" The old man grouses around a mouthful of food, spots of barbeque sauce spattered across his lapels and his nose. "Don't stare, boy. It's rude."

When the man summons him with a look, Law moves jarringly towards him, each step heavier than the last. He unbuttons his coat, shrugs it off robotically, and sits across from the man like they'd arranged the meeting ahead of time. "I didn't know you were in town."

Luffy's grandfather shrugs. "Not for long. I'm not even dropping in on the boys this time." Garp takes a satisfying bite out of his rib and waves the bone at the younger man with greasy lips. "Want some?"

Law physically recoils in horror. "I'm good, thanks."

Garp holds up a hand to signal the waitress, and she brings a menu dutifully, smiling brightly at Law despite the tan man's obvious displeasure. "Don't let me stop you from coming in to eat. Even I'm not that cruel."

Later, when Law is sure that he's not going to go home in a body bag, perhaps he will find this philosophy shared by grandparent and grandchild adorably amusing. "What brings you here?"

The gray-haired old man looks at the younger man like he's an idiot. "Their barbeque is to  _die_  for. I try to come here without the boys, because they'd never go anywhere else if I brought them here. Luffy especially!" After he guffaws, he trains his dark eyes back on Law, and Law feels like he's inadvertently walked into a trap. To avoid the awkward stare down, Law glances back at the menu, hoping that the waitress will come back soon so he can order his food to go and get the hell out of here.

"Err, yeah," says the surgeon-in-training with absolutely no enthusiasm. "You're so right. I was thinking about bringing Luffy here for… _something._ " God, what the  _shit_. It's like his brain's absolutely given up on working tonight. He can't even cobble together a half-assed excuse.

"You can say it's for  _Valentine's_  Day," Garp snorts, taking in a mouthful. Law isn't  _surprised_ , really, but he's just waiting for the verbal abuse that he can feel coming through the palpable tension between the two of them right now. "And  _relax_ , kid. I'm not gonna yell or beat your ass in public or something." Now  _that_  is a surprise.

"You're very…intuitive," Law skirts, gripping the menu with a little less fervor now.

Garp snorts so deeply that it sounds like a noise from a pig at that. "I'm a  _fed_. It's my goddamn  _job_  to be intuitive." Suddenly, everything makes a disturbing amount of sense, and Law feels chills run down his spine. The words  _federal_  and  _agent_  had been swear words in his childhood home, and he's still not particularly comfortable with them, even on his own terms. He's never been much of a rule-follower, to be honest. "Oh, for Christ's sake, unclamp your asshole, brat. Nobody likes the feds. You're not special."

Law has never felt at such a loss for words. "Okay." It doesn't really calm his nerves, but it gets easier to act natural after this admittance. Once he sucks in a deep breath and feels back in control of himself, he asks in a low voice, "How much do you know about me?"

"Enough," replies the old man before sticking his fingers in his mouth and licking them clean. "I could list a hundred  _legal_  reasons why I don't like you, but your  _family_  doesn't impact  _your_  life." He smiles and leans against the table, his face so close that Law unconsciously leans back in his seat. "I'm starting to think you really did cut ties, come clean, and have a completely acceptable relationship with my stupid grandson."

Gaping, the tan man drops his menu at long last. " _What_?"

"I'm saying that I don't  _like_  you!" Garp laughs boisterously and Law decides right then and there that the whole Monkey family is full of people who deserve to be locked in mental facilities for decades. "But I guess you'll do. If Luffy tolerates you, I will, if only by proxy. Ah, I'll always be looking for the opportunity to throw you in jail if you fuck up, though!  _Gwahaha!_ "

It is a miracle that he does not walk right out of that restaurant then and there. The waitress comes back with a glass of water, and Law orders an alcoholic beverage so he can collect his thoughts and  _deal_  with Luffy's ridiculous grandfather. "I'll be very careful, sir."

" _Ugh_ ," whines the old man, sounding very much like his grandson in that moment. "You're so stuffy. And stiff! If you're always so boring, I don't have the slightest clue what Luffy sees in you!"

Law bristles and forces a smile. "Maybe it's my handsome face,  _sir_."

Garp howls with laughter again. "Well, at least you've got a sense of humor."

Law isn't really sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment, but since Garp's in a good mood, he decides on the latter.

* * *

By the time he and Luffy get a chance to  _talk_ , Valentine's is merely days away, and Law finds out that he  _does_  have to work, because the holiday falls on a Wednesday. Law tells Luffy about his meeting with his grandfather, and Luffy pulls all kinds of faces, sticking out his tongue and making fart noises.

"Uggg _ghhhh_!" He motions to the back of his mouth with his finger. "Ignore grandpa! He's always such a load of shit all the  _time_!" Luffy stomps his foot on the floor and Law chuckles at his dramatics. After a moment, he throws himself onto Law's back and clings for dear life until Law eventually topples over and groans on the floor. "Grandpa's dumb!"

"But he loves you a lot," Law admits quietly. "I got  _that_  much, sheesh. After he finished scaring the royal shit out of me, he talked my ear off about you and Ace for the better part of an hour."

Luffy rolls off of Law for long enough to let his boyfriend flip over on the floor so that they lie face to face. "Yeah, he does." Luffy pulls himself onto Law's chest with his elbows and does not stop looking him in the eyes.

 _This is dangerous_ , Law thinks, but his body has different intentions. As Luffy moves closer and keeps  _looking_ , Law's breath starts to rush and his hands itch to move to Luffy's hips. "That's good. At least you know he…cares."

Luffy's smile is absolutely enchanting as their mouths move closer, noses so close that they're touching. Law's hands drift so that his fingers loop in Luffy's boxers, his own lips twitching up involuntarily. "I can't  _believe_  you're still talking about gramps right now." Luffy's hands also scramble with the complicated fixtures on Law's clothes.

Law shifts his hips to allow Luffy easier access and groans when the younger man rolls against him, their lower halves barely meeting, a familiar motion but one that never gets old. "I know." Luffy moves to suck at Law's lower lip before Law begins to control the kiss.

They pull apart breathlessly as Law's hands start to wander and the older male smirks quickly. "Wanna go to the barbeque joint this weekend? My treat."

Luffy makes a disgruntled noise from the back of his throat. "If you're trying to turn me on right now, it's working."

Law bursts out laughing but he gets the hint. "You're so fucking weird." He knows when to shut his mouth and get to work, so he does just that and considers the week a success.

Maybe Luffy  _does_  need to be properly wined and dined from time to time, if he winds up earning surprises like this for the effort.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's never a dull moment with Luffy, honestly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your kind words and kudos and the like, oh my gosh! It really means a lot to me! I had a couple discussions with people about the possibility of having a side fic/companion piece to this, and wanted some feedback to know if you guys would be interested in that here as well? It would include some heavier/M-rated stuff between Law and Luffy, the dinner date that I didn't include from last chapter, and anything else you would've liked to have seen in the main fic but I didn't think to include or didn't have time to write in. Feel free to drop me a message on here and let me know how you feel about it! Thanks so much again and have an awesome weekend! ♥

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."

— **Plato**

* * *

The redhead is curled up in bed playing with the long ponytail of her girlfriend when her phone buzzes on an early Saturday morning. Vivi's eyes flick open sleepily and Nami groans, completely unwilling to roll over and check who the call is from. The blue-haired young woman fixes the redhead with  _the_  look, and Nami murmurs something unintelligible before she sticks her left arm out and clasps her cell phone within tightly manicured fingers. While the phone vibrates, she squints her hazel eyes and her lips twist. "It's Luffy," she mumbles before pressing  _answer_. Vivi flips around and smiles lazily, listening. "Hello?"

"Nami!" He sounds as boisterous as always, so the redhead figures there's no trouble in paradise. Since that's the case, she scowls and puzzles through the reasons he might be calling her so early on a weekend. "Come play with me!"

 _Figures._  Vivi, who can see her rolling her eyes, giggles lethargically. "I was supposed to go on a date this afternoon. Where are the boys?" After a beat she adds, "What about Trafal-what's his name—you know, your  _boyfriend_?" It's still weird, after all this time, to think about Luffy in a  _relationship_. It's really strange to think that anybody has the patience.

"Bring Vivi with you! Everybody's busy studying for  _midterms_  and Torao had to go to the hospital for an  _emergency_  or something. You're the only person I know that doesn't always work on Saturdays! Please, please,  _please_ , Nami!" He's begging and using that high-pitched, brotherly kind of voice that she has a hard time resisting for long.

Glancing at Vivi, who can hear him talking, she raises her eyebrow and takes the phone off of her ear. The blue-haired woman mouths back,  _it's fine_ , and Nami nods. "Alright, alright! We can probably be ready to go in hour. Wanna meet us at the restaurant near Shanks' place?"

"Absolutely! Bet I'll beat you there!" Luffy immediately hangs up, much to Nami's chagrin and Vivi's amusement. The redhead sighs and throws her legs over the bed. Vivi slides out of bed with little to no grace, practically tripping over her house shoes. Nami giggles at her plight as Vivi pulls the hair tie out and refreshes her loose, bedtime ponytail, lips pulled down in a pout.

"I'm going to laugh when you finally trip and fall over something one of these days," Vivi murmurs, shuffling towards Nami to kiss her cheeks, looking not at all as sour as her voice sounds.

Nami laughs her usual little coy laugh. "I'm like a cat. If you're waiting for me to fall, it'll never happen, and as long as you're watching, I'll land on all fours."

Her girlfriend tips her head back at that. "If you landed on all fours, that'd still be quite the sight!"

The redhead bumped hips with her, grinning widely. "Oh, shut up, I'm being so witty right now and you know it."

Vivi dramatically gasps, hiding a smile behind a thin hand. "Really now?" Her eyes fell to half-mast and she tried to pitch her voice a step deeper. "I hadn't noticed."

Nami teased her shirt off and started to tickle Vivi, vaguely aware that they were wasting time, but Vivi had tears in her eyes from laughter, was begging for forgiveness, and really, it was worth the extra couple of minutes – time well spent, in her opinion.

Luffy could wait.

* * *

Nami and Vivi are amazingly well put together despite their morning shenanigans, and Luffy looks remarkably underdressed for the weather outside. Vivi fusses, removing her scarf to place around his neck, and Nami swears that if he does not at least zip up his jacket that she'll tape him to a pole, and nobody wants that.

The three of them sit down for lunch, babbling about whatever's going on. Vivi talks about her father's business, Nami talks about her job in fashion marketing and management, and Luffy talks about the sports center.

Honestly, the two of them (among many of Luffy's friends) had never been sure what he wanted to do with his life, and he was so active, good at all sports to a certain degree, but unpolished, so when he'd expressed his interest in working at a sports facility, they had backed him whole-heartedly. He got to play with people of all ages, people who sought lessons and partners for all varieties of sports, and it was a job well suited for his sunny disposition and boundless energy. He stayed in shape and got along well with his co-workers, and really, that was all for the best.

After lunch, the three of them stop into his godfather's place, say hello to Shanks, spend a fair time talking with him, and proceed to go have their day out with their unexpected tagalong.

This mostly means that a couple chores have to be accomplished while he bounces childishly around them (much to Nami's annoyance and Vivi's horrified amusement), attending a movie that he doesn't particularly like, which he mocks with voices that they giggle about, and a long stroll around town while they eat ice cream. It's fun being with Luffy because he makes them genuinely smile, genuinely gripe, and genuinely cry their hearts out when anything goes wrong in their lives. He hadn't been afraid to kick the asses of their old love interests, hadn't shied away when the two of them had gotten closer and closer to the point that they'd been holding hands and exchanging kisses, and had even encouraged them. Honestly, it's more like he just doesn't  _care_ , but the women are astoundingly grateful to have him as a friend.

Nami had explained on several occasions to outsiders that made fun of them that he was like the little brother they'd never had, and Vivi supported this notion one hundred percent.

When Luffy flinches at mention of getting a haircut with the girls at the salon, they offer to call him a cab home, but he opts to give someone else a ring so he can continue hanging out around town. Sabo's the first one on his contact list to answer, back in town again for the weekend, and the blonde offers to play video games with him until later that night, and then they could go to the bar together.

Luffy jumps in the air with joy, which Nami laughs about from behind the salon's glass windows, and Vivi crosses her fingers, thinking to herself,  _well, let's just hope that he stays out of trouble this time._

* * *

They've lived in a metropolitan city all of their lives, so there are no shortage of new places to check out. Sabo had found this bar with a recommendation from Ace's co-worker, Marco. It's a laid back fusion bar-restaurant, with a wall of tap beers and top-shelf alcohols to choose from. Once they go in, they just ask the bartender for drinks that will taste good and get them drunk quickly, laughing and joking about nothing in particular. He doesn't even check their IDs.

As the night becomes long, Luffy's giggles become riddled with hiccups, and Sabo, a much,  _much_  better drinker than his little bro, smiles and calls up the bartender to take care of their tab.

"Y'don have to do that," slurs the brunette, and the blonde shakes his head, already holding out his debit card.

"It's fine, Luffy. Just accept my gratitude." Sabo grins widely, mouthing  _thank you_  at the barkeep before he moves to sling Luffy over his shoulders.

"Haveta pee," murmurs the younger man and Sabo groans.

"You're a mess. Can you walk?" Luffy nods, but his feet stumble. "Sheesh." The blonde hefts more of his old friend's weight and grunts. "You're gettin' too old for me to just sling you over my back and carry you around, Lu."

Luffy giggles absently. "Ne'er too old, Sabo. I'm like…sev'n-teen."

Sabo hisses. "Be quiet. I snuck you in here, remember?" Luffy smiles again, disregarding him, and the blonde sighs. "Besides, you're almost twenty. You're gonna be legal next year anyways." They finally make it to the bathroom and Sabo helps Luffy balance his wobbly feet so that he can stand and pee. He tells his little bro that he'll be right outside if he needs anything, and Luffy garbled something back in response.

The blonde gets momentarily distracted from his task of being the bathroom watchdog by his phone ringing, the caller ID reading  _Koala_. His head throbs from the dull ache of the alcohol in his system and despite his better judgment, he answers the phone anyways.

She's chewing him out, but not in that loud, frustrating sort of way that was mostly hot air and no real threat – she's all sweet voice, light tones, and giggles, which means that Sabo high-tails it outside so quickly that he practically trips over himself to apologize, swooning and crooning, and Koala is having absolutely none of his bullshit today.

In the bathroom, Luffy is struggling to zip up his pants, contemplating sleeping on the floor, and fighting back nausea. In the back of his mind, he's half-expecting Law to turn up at any given moment and chew him out for drinking so heavily, so when somebody bumps into him roughly and doesn't apologize, he pouts.

"Well, that's  _ruuuude_ ," He manages, forming words and hoping his glare comes out as headily as he wants to express it. "Zere's more than one ur'nal, y'know."

"Jesus, you little shit," the dude says, looking him up and down with a smirk. "Don't pass out on me here. I'd hate to have to send you to the hospital."

"Not gonna," Luffy scowls and holds up his fists with realization (albeit drunken) dawning in his eyes. "You ne'er 'pologized to me." His dark eyes are starting to come into focus, and he can see that the guy's pretty big, and definitely tough. Not only are his muscles defined, he's got tats almost up to his neck, and Luffy can practically  _smell_  the desire for a good fight radiating from the dude. It's enough to make him snap out of his stupor to raise his fists.

"You're pickin' a fight with me?" A loud laugh rumbles from his chest and echoes in the small bathroom. "You're wasted, shithead. Forget it."

Luffy grins and winds his arm back, releasing the tension to connect with the redhead's face so quickly that it leaves the other man bewildered, laid out by the sheer force of the impact. Luffy snickers and scuttles away, calling for someone as he makes his way out of the bar and the carmine-haired man growls, chasing after the surprisingly elusive drunk.

"Sabo!" Luffy waves at the blonde as he runs. Sabo looks alarmed at the looming redhead trying to catch him just footsteps behind. "You ready to go?"

"Come back and here and finish what you started!" The man yells as the blonde grabs the brunette's wrist and runs away at break-neck speed, closing his phone with a murmured,  _we'll talk about this later,_  to Koala. "I ain't finished with you, brat!"

With a grin a mile wide and all the sincerity of the world, Luffy manages to rasp back loudly, "I'll finish things next time!"

The red-haired man can't decide if he's infuriated, enthralled, or a heady mixture of both.

* * *

Most of Sunday had come to pass with Law trying to recover from a sleepless week and Luffy being around at his friends' houses as a consequence, but the evening found the both of them curled up, eating frozen dinners and stale chips at the apartment. Law asked what his boyfriend had been up to while he'd been held up at the hospital, but Luffy simply said that he'd had a good time, which, of course, meant that he'd gotten into more messes that the darker-skinned medical student didn't  _really_  want to know about.

He used to ask more about Luffy's plans for the week, about his high school years and other facets of his life that he hadn't been a part of - about anything, really, to see what he wanted to share - but the only things he'd really gleaned from the lithe younger man was that he and his grandfather were too alike to really get along, he loved his two brothers (blood irrelevant), and he really, really liked to eat. Apparently, according to Luffy's friends, those were the only things that he needed to know.

Since that's the case, he relishes in the small things, like the warmth of another person he's decided to trust, despite all of his reservations. The scariest part, he subconsciously realizes, is that he  _does_  trust Luffy, even if he maybe shouldn't.

It's a weakness of his he's been dealing with for years, and he's sure as hell not going to dredge it up now.

* * *

Monday finds Luffy whooping and hollering about successfully landing another basketball goal, much to his co-worker, Conis's amusement. Her high-buns bounce as she claps for him and wipes her brow, thoroughly exhausted from trying to keep up with Luffy's hap-hazard movements.

"Good game!" She claps him on the shoulders so roughly that he almost falls, but he brushes the underside of his nose with a finger, grinning and chortling back. "Gonna hit the showers?" Luffy pulls a face and she chuckles back. "You're gonna smell for the rest of the day."

"Don't care," he murmurs back with a snort. He hustles back to the locker room (which he'd been  _forced_  to learn how to use, for the sake of the customers, because he has no sense of shame or propriety) to change his clothes and is pleasantly surprised upon his return to the front desk to see two familiar faces walk in the door. "Franky! Brook!"

The blue-haired man has his hair methodically smoothed back, and points finger-guns at Luffy as he sidles in. "What's up?! Feelin'  _super_  today?!"

Brook tips his hat as he avoids the frame of the door and smiles as a greeting to their short companion. "Good morning, Mr. Luffy."

"It's so good to see you guys!" Luffy leaps up and throws himself into them, knocking the thin, dark-skinned man over and the blue-haired buff guy with him. "What're you doing here?"

Franky huffs through his nose, sits up and picks the teenager off of him. "We heard you were workin' here, bro! Thought we'd maybe get our blood pumping on the soccer field and finish with a quick dip in the pool!"

Luffy beams, looking between both of them for confirmation. Brook nods with a chuckle, Franky strikes a pose, flashing his teeth, and the dark-eyed teenager leaps back on his feet. "I'm coming with you!" Conis emerges from the locker room, her hair back in its' buns, her face fixed with a probing expression while her co-worker fixes her with a pleading gaze.  "Can I, can I, can I?"

"I haven't heard what you want to do yet," she shakes her head with a smile, helplessly bemused by Luffy's antics.

"I wanna play soccer and go swimming with these guys!"

The blonde quirks an eyebrow at that. "I thought you couldn't swim, Luffy?"

He blinks back at her, thinking for a moment. Dark eyes slide shut as he smiles and gives her a thumbs up. "You're right,  _oops_! Guess it's just soccer for me, then."

Franky and Brook have to share a sigh of relief with the woman on that, and their eyes follow her as she reaches under the countertop to hand something to her co-worker. "Just make sure you sign out the equipment and keep an eye out for anybody else who's out on the field, okay?"

"Okay!" Luffy clicks his heels together before he goes to scribble his initials next to what the three of them will need to play soccer. Various shin-guards and jerseys are plucked from separate bags and Conis hands him a ball before they head outside and start chatting, eager to move their legs and catch up.

* * *

They decide to play with one goal, picking Brook to be the goalie while Franky and Luffy have a one-on-one match. Every twenty minutes or so, they take a break to re-hydrate and check to see whether Brook is getting tired of his position, but since he says no, they continue. After about an hour of kicking a ball around with a pretty even score (3 for Luffy and 4 for Franky), they decide to take very long break and talk.

"So," The blue-haired man has locks falling in his face because of the sweat on his brow. "What's been goin' on in your world, lil' dude?"

"Work, mostly," Luffy laughs, stuffing protein bars and drinks down his throat so quickly that he's bound to choke soon. "I saw Nami and Vivi this weekend!"

Brook sidles onto the bench and groans, graciously accepting his water bottle from Franky and murmuring,  _I'm getting too old for this._

"How're things goin' with your boyfriend?" Brook chuckles at Franky's wording, but Luffy simply beams back, beating his chest to force the mush down his throat.

"Torao, you mean?" Luffy manages to swallow and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "He's good. Busy, I guess."

"No, I meant…" He trails off with a sigh. "Never mind."

Brook interjects, "I think that what Franky was trying to ask you was how your  _relationship_  with Mr. Trafalgar was going."

Luffy's eyes widen and he leaps up, putting his hands on his waist. "Why didn't you  _say_  so? It's great! He feeds me and everything! Why do you ask?"

Franky runs his palm down his face before chuckling lowly.  _Why indeed._  "We worry about your sorry butt sometimes, bro."

The oldest male of the group smiles and says, "Well, no news is good news, they say. Isn't that right, Mr. Luffy?"

"I dunno. So, are we gonna keep playing or not? If we're not, I'm  _starving_!"

Brook and Franky share a look before they laugh, dust off their knees, and try to keep up with Luffy's boundless energy for at least another twenty minutes.

* * *

Luffy crashes into the apartment and messes up Law's papers, and Law can't even find it within himself to  _care_  any more. As Luffy enters the living room, he stops to hug Law hello, and the elder of the two scrunches up his nose, disgusted.

" _Ugh_ ," the darker-skinned man plugs his nose with his hands. "You  _reek_." Luffy gets close enough to hug him again and he pushes him away. "Shower.  _Now_. No discussion."

" _Ehhhhh_ …" Luffy groans as he makes his way into the kitchen, searching for a snack. "I'm just saying hello!"

After a moment of consideration, Law adds, "Then brush your teeth, too." Luffy groans and drags his feet, determined to ignore him before Law says, "I'll make you  _two_  sandwiches while you're in there if you just  _please go_ , ugh." He's learned very well how to use his resources to his advantage, because Luffy immediately brightens and tries to throw his arms around Law in satisfaction before Law makes gagging noises and pushes him away  _again_. "Hurry up, you're gross!"

"Okay, okay already!" Luffy bounces off to the shower after grabbing a towel out of the closet and slamming the bathroom door.

Law reorganizes his papers, closes his laptop, and groans, rearranging his clothes and cracking his neck as he stands. He sidles over to the fridge quietly, humming to himself as he digs out the roast beef he's been saving in the drawer Luffy never looks in. After that, he cuts thick slices of sourdough bread from the loaf in the breadbox next to the toaster oven and sprinkles them with water before putting them in that and warming them up. He moves to get mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions for their sandwiches, cuts the roast beef, puts it in the microwave for a bit, and waits for the toaster over to make its' quiet  _ding._ Keeping an ear out for Luffy emerging from his shower, he absently taps his long fingers on the countertop and waits.

 _Ding!_  The shower's still running and Luffy's still singing – he can hear it through the wall connecting his room to the kitchen – which means there's plenty of time to lather up the six slices of bread with their preferred condiments, lay out the warm sandwiches, and get drinks and chips ready to go with their dinner.

Like he can  _sense_  it or something, Luffy barrels out of the washroom in sweatpants and a t-shirt with dripping wet hair and drool coming out of the side of his mouth. He leaps into his seat and takes a bite of the sandwich without even sparing a moment to say thank you to Law, but Law is used to it, sighing and eating his sandwich at a much healthier pace. "You're going to choke one of these days, you know."

Luffy beats his chest and swallows before grinning. "But you'll be there to save me, right?"

Law rolls his eyes and pats his mouth with a napkin. "Yeah, yeah. And what would you do  _without_  me, dummy?"

Dark eyes blink up at him and he grins again. "I dunno!"

His boyfriend sighs, unsure whether he should be concerned for Luffy's future or pleased beyond belief that Luffy views him as an integral part of his life. Since he can't make up his mind, he decides to shake out the cobwebs and talk again. "Hey, Luffy…" He drawls for a moment, eyes distracted by a fruit fly moving in the corner of the kitchen. "Since you're already here all the time, why don't you move in with me?"

Luffy almost drops his sandwich, which is a little bit like a sign of the apocalypse, and Law wonders if maybe he should take it back and say that they can talk about this later, but Luffy jumps out his chair after he gulps and gapes at his boyfriend, one drop of water hanging from his hair and about to drop on his face. "Really?!"

Before Law can regret it, he tries to make himself swallow and smile and his hand voluntarily darts out to wipe the fresh droplet off of Luffy's nose. "Don't make me ask twice or I'll hurt you."

Swallowing his second sandwich at a speed that doesn't make any sense, Luffy hurries to wash it down with a glass of water while Law fusses under his breath behind him and he goes to get his cell phone. He dials Ace, raving rapidly about his great news, and his brother grouses that he needs to be quiet and slow down if he wants him to understand anything that he said.

"I  _said_  that I'm moving in with Torao!" Luffy yells and Law hisses, pulling the phone from his hands and apologizing to Ace before hanging up. "What'd you do that for?!"

"Because you need to  _calm down_ ," Law exhales slowly while Luffy grins, face covered in crumbs and limbs jumping with his unconfined joy.

"But I'm  _excited_!" Luffy yelps, tugging at Law's hair, much to his annoyance. "You know, you've invited me to live with you, so that means I'll be here  _all the time_. No take backs!" He lets his hair go and his lips fall in a pout.

Law sighs through his nose and rubs Luffy's back. "I  _know_. I wouldn't have invited you if I didn't already know that."

Pouting, Luffy falls closer to him, breathing him in. "You promise?"

Running his hands through Luffy's blessedly clean hair, Law breathes in his soapy scent and smiles a little. "Promise."

Luffy's hands clasp behind Law's back, and Law reciprocates the motion. "Finally got you to hug me."

"That's because you don't smell like yesterday's garbage anymore." Luffy flicks him in the forehead and he winces. "What? You stank!"

The teenager burrows his head into the older man's neck and murmurs, "That's not what you're supposed to say now."

The wheels in Law's head turn as he chuckles and kisses the crown of Luffy's head. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. Welcome  _home_ , you dumb loser."

Luffy bites his shoulder and Law winces, but he replies, "I'm  _home_ , stupid doctor," so Law knows that, in the end, he's forgiven.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There really should be a limit on how many things are allowed to happen in one month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowzers. It's almost been two months since I started on this shindig. What a trip. Thank you guys for all your kind words and your support! You're the best. If you're interested, there's going to be an offshoot collection of shortfics to accompany _Sunsets_ , and it will be called _Sunday Afternoon Chaos Theory_. If you're interested in knowing more about that, click [here](http://archiveofourown.org/series/112953) for more info. Hope you enjoy the chapter and have an excellent weekend everybody!!

"I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me."

— **Bob Dylan**

* * *

The month of May is hilariously busy.

They move Luffy's things in on a relative cool day of the week and then collapse on the couch, determined to unpack later. Ace is busy when they start, but he helps them finish, and he gives his brother a knuckle sandwich before smiling and parting ways.

Luffy's 20th birthday has come and gone, so Law finally feels like he's no longer dating a child, and he has to come up with a new nickname for him that communicates that, but so far, he's got  _sleepyhead, meat-for-brains,_ and  _Sir-Breaks-His-Sandals-A-Lot_. Upon consideration, he might just settle on  _Sandalbreaker_ , because Luffy will think that sounds cooler and he won't realize that it's a backhanded insult in disguise.

Beyond that, for whatever reason, the hospital is disgustingly understaffed. Law is overbooked and having a much harder time getting away for the weekends, and although Luffy swears up and down that he doesn't mind,  _he_  does, and he's going to help his boss get more people to fill in some hours so that he can actually  _sleep_. Luffy parties with his friends, works hard at his job, and swings around the apartment happily when he returns, mostly excited because he knows what he's getting for his birthday, even if it's a late  _gift_.

The other reason Law hasn't being sleeping much is because once he gets back and finishes filing his clinical reports, he keeps drafting out this insane tattoo that Luffy wants across his back. Ace, who has a big one across his back in honor of his boss, finds the idea of his baby brother, who had been afraid of needles for so long as a kid, getting a tattoo hysterical.

Once he finally finishes the damn drawing and argues his way into a free weekend off (he swears, one day  _he's_  going to run that hospital and make everyone else suffer), he makes a phone call to get the equipment he needs delivered so that he can give Luffy the tattoo on the following Saturday.

When the phone beeps, he leaves a message because the man's probably busy. Law  _despises_  calling him for anything, but his prices are good, and the thin man wants to go all out on Luffy's birthday present. "Eustass. Give me a call back. I'm going to need five different kinds of ink, a new pack of needles…"

* * *

A few days later, Law tells Luffy to keep an eye on the door while he goes to the restroom, which, of course, means that a knock comes at the door while he's preoccupied. Luffy opens it up to find a redhead grumbling and he lets him in, unaware. "You looking for Torao?"

Realization dawns on the taller man's face and his mouth falls open, brow furrowing. His fists clench and he nearly drops the box he's holding in surprise. "You!"

Luffy blinks, pointing at himself. "Me? You're looking for me?" His lips stick out in a pout. "Why?"

"No I'm—!" The redhead notices that he's shouting and spitting in the kid's face, but he's pretty damn shocked to see that drunk from the bar opening the door to Law's place like he lives there— _if_  he still does. Maybe he should've asked the bastard for his address again. "Who the hell is  _Torao_?"

After a beat, the toilet flushes, and they both turn. Luffy perks up, suddenly remembering his duty. "You're supposed to be bringing stuff for my present, right?"

The bulky redhead scowls and adjusts the box in his arms. "I'm  _supposed_  to be bringing  _Trafalgar_  some ink supplies. You know anything about that, asshole?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Law emerges from the bathroom, rolling paper towels in his bony hands and sending both of them sharp looks. "Eustass, put the box down. How much do I owe you?"

Eustass snorts and smirks, looking between the two of them. "I get it. Damn, your tastes have changed."

Baggy-eyed, weary, and severely impatient, Law clenches his teeth, throws his paper towels away, and repeats, "How  _much_?"

The redhead grunts as he sets the box down on the couch. "I oughta upcharge you for your new  _pal's_  bullshit." After he dusts off his hands, he holds out a palm and juts his square chin. "Since I'm  _so_  forgiving, I'll just make it sixty-five even."

"What are you talking about—and what the hell do you mean  _even_?" Law grumbles under his breath, reaching in his back pocket for twenties. "Why sixty-five? That's such an arbitrary number. Make it sixty."

Kid glares at Law. Luffy just looks at the two of them, incredibly amused by their banter. After the redhead grumbles and accepts the three twenty dollar bills with a glare, he turns around to move towards the door and huffs. "I'm startin' to remember why we never worked out, Trafalgar."

Law moves to check the contents of the box before the bulkier man leaves, pointedly ignoring his last comment. "Good. You didn't miss anything. Now out, out." He waits, crossing his arms. Luffy's still looking at Kid with a confused look on his face so Law sighs. "Stop staring. It's just makeup."

" _Oohhh_ ," Luffy breathes. He'd been looking at the redhead's eyes and lips so intensely that it was hard to imagine what else he could've been wondering about.

Kid whirls back around, punches Luffy squarely in the jaw, and exhales proudly. Law glares at him, snapping up immediately to go towards him, but Eustass is already flying out of the door. "What the fuck is the matter with you?!"

"Call it payback!" The redhead never could resist getting the last word in, and he sticks his tongue out at Law before disappearing into the cracks of old buildings and wooded yards.

Law grumbles while he kneels on the ground, helping Luffy sit up so he can point his nose downwards and let the blood drip out. "Hang on, I'll get tissues. Don't tilt your head back." He hurries into the kitchen to get a handful of napkins and sneaks careful glances at Luffy, who looks both angry and dazed. Eustass could pack a punch – he knows from experience. "What was that all about?"

Luffy sticks his lip out, bundling the napkins up in his nostrils. Law pinches his nose at the crux and tells him to breathe out slowly through his mouth. "I dunno! He just up and punched me!"

The surgeon-in-training grouses. "Well, he could've been mad at  _me_  about something…" He snorts, unable to keep a smile off of his face for long. "There's about a  _hundred_  things I could've done to him to make him angry, though."

Luffy giggles back in response. "You're so evil."

"Not evil," Law asserts, pressing his thumb and forefinger at the bridge of Luffy's nose again. " _Vengeful_."

The younger man laughs. "That can be the same thing sometimes."

After another minute or two of applying pressure, the bleeding stops, so Luffy bundles his dirty tissues together and throws them into the trash. Law stands up and puts his hands on his bony hips with a sigh. "Either way, my bad. I'll tell you why you got punched a little later. Wanna go to the grocery store with me?"

Leaping up excitedly, Luffy beats him to the door, but he doesn't have shoes on. Law chops him on the top of his head with a scowl, and he slips into his most conveniently located pair of sandals, even if they  _are_  falling apart. Noticing the look Law is giving him, Luffy defends, "They're comfortable!"

Law mutters back, "Sandalbreaker," and Luffy laughs like the world is coming to an end. Law smirks and snorts – it hadn't even been that funny – but that is the nickname he's going to go with after all.

* * *

The older man keeps a tight watch on Luffy, only allowing him to buy what he says he can buy and dragging him sharply by the arm to drag him through the aisles when the younger lingers for too long. After they check out and chatter about nothing in particular, Law starts talking about Kid. Apparently, since the man had punched him, this held Luffy's attention.

"Eustass Kid," Law pulls up a photo of the redhead through a social media website, in which he is making a rude gesture. "Tattoo artist by day and professional asshole by night. I guess you could say we were close, once."

Luffy blinks his dark eyes up at Law while the taller man unloads groceries onto the conveyer belt. "Like friends?" He pulls a sour face, lips askew and eyebrows raised.

Law laughs. "Nah, never like friends. We were more like enemies with benefits." He pauses from his grocery loading to rifle through his phone again, looking for a picture he's particularly proud of. He hands his cell to Luffy, where the LED touch screen shows a pixelated photograph of the redhead's car with a slashed tire with its' owner locked inside and looking worse for the wear. "He'd just stolen my car, broken the jar of one of my favorite frog specimens, and taken my favorite hat. He didn't get out for hours because I had help locking him in—got somebody else to deadbolt it from the outside, took his cell phone, the works." He snickers lowly to himself while Luffy gapes, the corners of his mouth upturned in morbid amusement. "We were shitty to each other. Why we slept together, god only knows."

Luffy hums, fighting back giggles. "That sounds fun! How long ago is this picture from?"

His boyfriend thinks, pocketing his phone again. "Mm…it's probably four or five years old." He studies Luffy to see if this was some sort of test, but no, Luffy's jumping for joy and laughing so hard he looks like he might cry about Law's antics as a young adult. "I've kept in contact with him because he does good work and he gives me stuff for my tats for cheap, even if he is a dick. Remember when I told you somebody helped with the ones on my back?" Luffy shakes his head  _no_  while wiping his eyes and Law rolls his eyes. "Well, anyways, that was him."

"Ahh man," Luffy chirps, sidestepping the cart and the assistant clerk that's bagging their things so that Law can slide his card and pay the bill. "That sounds like a lot of fun!"

Law flicks Luffy in the forehead without looking up from the keypad. "Don't even think about it, you little monster."

"Think about  _what_?" Luffy grouses, wincing in pain. "I didn't even tell you what I was gonna do!"

"All the more reason to stop you while I'm ahead," deadpans Law while the cashier hands him a receipt and he nods his thanks. "Anyways, you don't mind me keeping in contact with Eustass or anything, do you?"

"Nope!" Luffy beams, tugging at the cart because he wants Law to push him while he tries his best to balance on the front. "C'mon, hurry up!"

Law rolls his eyes but he smiles back, urging Luffy to hurry up so he can get back to his car because it looks like it's going to rain soon.

In the back of his mind, Law reminds himself to tell Sachi  _I told you so_  the next time they see each other, rolling the cart like a child while Luffy screams happily.

* * *

The next day, Law yawns through a desk full of paperwork before tearing himself away and running into a couple of vaguely familiar faces. There's a young woman and long-nosed young man walking together and the male stops, looking startled.

"You're, um," the curly-haired youth starts, shifting in place. "Trafal...gar, right?"

 _Well, that's the first time somebody around here's remembered my name_. He's not entirely sure why the kid looks so wary of him, though. He doesn't remember doing anything to offend him, and he's probably Luffy's friend. "Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, good," the kid breathes, but his eyes still look sort of disdainful. The girl, next to him, slaps him on the shoulder and he straightens up. "Ouch! Kaya…" he whines and she smiles innocently. After he takes a shuddering breath, he starts to speak again. "I'm Usopp. We've met a few times but you…didn't look like you knew me, so…"

"Ah," Law grunts, scratching his left arm. "I'm terrible with names and faces, sorry. You looked familiar, but I didn't want to interrupt."

The girl, Kaya, giggles softly. "Interrupt something at the hospital?" Noting his attire, she keeps smiling keenly. "But you're a doctor. I'm sure people here are looking forward to your interruptions."

Usopp elbows her back, chortling. "Whatever,  _wannabe doctor_. They'll be looking forward to  _your_  interruptions more some day."

Law decides right then and there that they're one of those sugary couples that he tries his best to avoid and this makes them dislike both of them on principle. This idea is further cemented when they clasp hands and touch noses. He wants to gag. This is the other part of the reason he hadn't wanted to approach them. Coughing to break them up, he murmurs, "Was there something you two needed?"

"Nope!" Usopp and Kaya reply in unison, then the boy talks. "Kaya used to come here a lot as a kid, and she was taking a tour today. She wants to be a pediatrician someday!"

She likes children, she's got a syrupy, supportive boyfriend, and he likes to boast about her. Even more reasons not to like them, in his book, but maybe it's just the cynic in him talking. Instead of speaking his mind, he forces a half-smile on his face and says, "That's nice."

Kaya glances at him before chuckling. "Come on, Usopp. Let's leave the nice doctor to his work."

Usopp blinks curiously, immediately obeying her suggestion, but he keeps chatting as we moved. "Why? We were just getting started talking. I didn't even get to ask him how Luffy was doing!"

The young woman turns her head and winks knowingly at Law. "Something tells me he has other things to do."

Law amends his thoughts. That girl's sharp, so maybe the two of them are all right after all.

He gets back to work, but he's only on clock for a few more minutes, and he winds up running into them again on the way out, nodding at long-nose and his blonde girlfriend, shuffling out of their way quickly so that they don't have time to stand around and chat.

* * *

Usopp pouts and sighs. "He's so scary looking." He watches Law disappear while flopping onto the countertop, waiting for the doctor that had given he and Kaya the tour to come and tell them goodbye. "Do you think he hates me?"

Kaya giggles under her breath, daintily covering her mouth. "I don't think so. Doesn't he just look tired to you?"

He motions like a monster, holding his arms out and lowering his eyelids. "Sleepless doctor  _pooooseeee_." His girlfriend giggles and he chortles alongside her. "Did I get him down?"

"Hmm…" she hums, scratching her chin before grinning widely. "Try being another foot taller and  _maybe_  you've got him."

"He's not  _that_  tall!" Usopp asserts before wilting, brow furrowing. "Is he?"

"No, you dork," she murmurs without bite. "Maybe you think he's taller because you find him intimidating?"

"Hnnn…" he groans back, hanging his head dejectedly. "Maybe." After a beat, someone strolls in the door and they both look up, distracted.

There's no one at the desk for the moment, as the doctor who'd given them the tour had called the clerks to the back briefly to discuss something. There's a sign up that says  _we'll be with you soon_ , but the little girl's blinking big eyes with an unnerving scowl, glancing around as if she's waiting for someone.

Usopp, unable to ignore a child in need despite his instincts screaming at him to shut up, leans down on his knees to look her in the eyes. "Are you looking for something?"

Frowning, the girl digs in her pockets. "Have you seen this man? He's my older brother."

Kaya slides over to the two of them and shares a quick look with Usopp before smiling. "He just left." It's the truth, anyways.

"Oh," she looks unperturbed, shoving the picture back into the left pocket of her dress. "Well, thanks anyways." She turns back around and slips outside before Usopp can ask if she wants to call someone to take her home, but a nice car is waiting for her in front of the hospital doors, so he gulps and assumes that she'll be fine.

"Do you think she was lying?" Kaya asks her boyfriend who is grimacing for some reason.

"Umm…I don't  _think_  so," the young man scowls, toying with the scraggly hairs on his chin. "I don't know for  _sure_ , obviously…but that little girl seemed like bad news."

"You've  _got_  to stop being so paranoid," the young woman reprimands him softly. "She couldn't be any older than ten or eleven. Not everyone you meet is crazy."

"No." His eyes linger on the automatic doors, where the car is long out of sight by now. "Not  _everyone_."

* * *

It's Friday. It's  _finally_  Friday. Law comes back to the apartment, collapses on the couch for an hour, and wakes to the sound of Luffy's key turning in the door, eyes flitting open and hands twitching. "Welcome back," he murmurs once the restless younger man enters.

"I'm back!" Luffy shouts, slipping out of his tennis shoes and darting for the kitchen. Law joins him after a few minutes, making a pot of coffee. "Don't drink that crap. Go to bed!"

Law swats Luffy's hand off of the coffee pot mechanically. "You're not the boss of me," he chides jokingly and Luffy hisses playfully. "I've got some papers to finish organizing so I can give you the tattoo tomorrow without having to worry about work looming over my head." Luffy's phone buzzes and he pulls it out of his pocket, drawing the taller man's attention. "Friend?"

Puzzled by the message, Luffy shrugs. "It's just Usopp. I don't think he wants anything too important. I'm so excited about this tattoo!"

"It's going to take a few hours," Law says while rifling through the cabinets for the package of ground coffee beans, the plastic crinkling in his hands when he finds it. "You think you can sit still for that long? We can take breaks whenever you want."

"I can for a tattoo!" Luffy promises, puffing out his chest a little bit before plopping down at the table with a plate full of crackers. Salty, unsatisfying, and full of crumbs landing in his teeth and on his face, he eats them out of habit more than anything else, and he won't tell Law to stop buying them either. Using a sing-song voice, Luffy continues, " _Taaaattooo…Taaaaattooo…Toooooraaaaooo's giving meeee a taaaaattoooo…_ "

Law chuckles while pouring water into the coffee maker. "Yeah, yeah."

As Luffy settles into the couch and Law scoots next to him, a fresh cup of coffee on hand, they both ignore the continual buzzing of Luffy's phone, determined to have a peaceful night in.

* * *

On Saturday evening, he sets to work. Law finally shows Luffy the completed drawing. He's got the line work sketched out on a stencil already, but his printed version has all six of the colors he wants to include in in the tattoo eventually. It's a detailed picture of the  _Napoléon_ , a French naval ship from the mid-1800s. On some of the sails, he's included a design that's taken from several ideas of the jolly rogers of pirate ships and something Luffy had said he liked to use in his representation of himself as a pirate – an old straw hat he'd worn as a child, a gift from Shanks. Luffy had said it didn't fit him anymore – a damn shame, really – so he kept it on a shelf in his childhood home, tattered, worn, and beloved. Around the initial design of the ship, he'd included the ocean and the corner of an island, bringing the colors up to a total of one that he'd had before – black – and five that he hadn't – green, blue, brown, yellow, and red.

Luffy stares at the design in awe before yelping and launching himself onto Law's working chair, ripping off his shirt. "Let's  _go_!"

"Sheesh," Law shakes his head. "I've gotta wash my hands and get the stuff ready. Just chill out." He sets up the needle gun before getting the rubbing alcohol and the stencil. Once he's got everything together on his table and the picture next to him for reference, he turns on some low music, slips on a pair of gloves, and tells Luffy to just relax already. He cleans his back before sticking the stencil on and pressing a warm cloth on it so that the pattern's lightly sketched on his back. "You ready?"

"Oh yeah," Luffy replies quickly, eager.

Law powers up the needle gun that's loaded with black for now and gets to work, dragging out long black lines in methodical patterns. Luffy, true to his word, is still, lying on his stomach and breathing so lightly that Law can hardly believe it. The two of them chat about nothing in particular until Luffy starts to drift off and Law hums along with his music.

For at least an hour, he goes on like this, lost in his little world of the inner workings of this ship that Luffy's shown him at least five pictures of, detailing each little cannon and plank like it was his own boat. He'd said something along the lines of  _I just love sailing. It's so…free_.

Law smiles before pausing, turning the needle gun off and standing up to get coffee, having the outline about a quarter of the way done. Luffy jumps up to stretch his arms and yawn, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

"Howzzit?" Luffy slurs as Law returns, holding a mug of coffee and a glass of water.

"It's going about as fast as I expected it to," Law replies easily, lips set on the cup. After he takes a sip, he reaches to pull Luffy in and kiss his shoulders. "I think you're going to love it."

"You  _think_  so?" Luffy chides, smiling back widely. "I love it already!"

Law pokes him in the side. "You can't even see it, moron."

"Doesn't matter." Luffy lies back down. "I just know."

Law puts his coffee down and changes his gloves with a snort. "Yeah, yeah." He starts the needle gun back up after his boyfriend settles again, putting even more attention into etching the lines on Luffy's back.

* * *

Sanji brings two steaming plates out for Usopp and Chopper with a grimace. "You two  _really_ couldn't have brought a girl with you?"

The long-nosed youth shoots his blonde friend a glare. "Oh, shut up. Are you happy to see us or not?"

"Well, you came when the kitchen was slow, so I guess I'll  _partially_  forgive you this time." Taking a seat at their booth, the chef reaches into his pocket for a cigarette out of habit before realizing that he's indoors. "Anyways, what's up? You don't usually drop in on the weekends. You know I get slammed."

Chopper stops beaming at his food to look up worriedly. "Usopp said…" He toys with his silverware with a dim expression, waiting on the other teenager to take his lead.

Usopp looks up with a sudden grimace. "I dunno, Sanji. Just…something's bothering me." Digging in his pocket, he looks at his cell phone irritably. "I've been texting Luffy to ask  _him_  about it, but I know he's probably just busy or he's lost his cell again."

"Don't worry about him," says Sanji, waving his hand absently, encouraging both of them to eat despite their concerns. "He can take care of himself."

Shoving a mouthful of delicious, delicious food into his throat, Usopp winces at the temperature before making a deep-throated noise of pleasure. "S'amazin', as always." After gulping, he pounds his chest and continues. "That's not the point. I saw this girl," immediately Sanji perks up, but he glares and goes on to say, "A  _kid_ ," and the blonde dampers. "I saw her at the hospital…she didn't look…all there, you know?"

"Well, she was probably sick, right?" Chopper offers after swallowing his food and then frowning. "It  _was_  the hospital."

"Okay, how do I say this? She looked…well, her  _eyes_  looked way older than  _she_  did. Like…she'd seen some crazy stuff. Or  _done_  it?" Usopp groans around another bite of food while Sanji scrutinizes him. "I don't know! I really don't. I think I'm just being paranoid, but she asked for Luffy's boyfriend! I don't even know the guy, not really, so who knows why I'm sticking my neck out for him."

"Calm  _down_ ," the blonde interjects, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently. "Even if you're  _not_  going crazy—which you  _are_  by the way, accusing  _a little girl_ —you're looking out for  _Luffy,_ right?" Sanji huffs through his nose. " _That's_  not crazy."

"Yeah!" Chopper adds, pumping his fist. "Totally not crazy!"

Usopp rolls his eyes and lets out a long-suffering gripe. "Gee, thanks a lot, you two."

"So, why  _are_  you so freaked out anyways?" Sanji reaches for a cigarette at last, just to put it between his teeth. "Some kid comes in and asks for Luffy's boyfriend. Big deal. I hear he's a pretty important doctor."

"He's a surgeon, and he's still in training, I think," Usopp corrects through bites of his food. "Why would some little girl need heart surgery?"

"You never know what could happen," Chopper admits sadly, taking a gulp of his soda down. "It's not that rare for children to develop heart problems."

"Okay, sure, fine," Usopp allows, fork clanging on his plate before he reaches for his own glass of water. "But she didn't say  _that_. She didn't ask where the heart surgery department  _was_  or anything, not like a patient."

Sanji, curiosity piqued by his storytelling, raises the eyebrow that isn't shrouded by his bangs. "Alright, I'm sold. What'd she say?"

After a beat, Usopp swallows and says, "She said she was his sister." Chopper and Sanji don't see the point, so he looks between them somberly. "One, that guy's  _never_  talked about his family. Two, they looked nothing alike. Besides, she didn't even  _smile_."

Chopper gets drawn into his mood and frowns worriedly. "That  _is_  a little strange…"

"And she didn't say  _why_  she needed to see him, either?" Sanji leans back in his chair, arms folded over his chest as they start to wipe their mouths. Usopp shakes his head no and he grunts. "Huh." After another moment, he stands up and the other males' eyes follow him while he paces. "That  _is_  weird. But without proof or without knowing who she really is…there's no telling how suspicious she is or isn't. I think I know how we can ask about her, though."

"Really?" Usopp blinks his eyes up at the blonde in awe. "How?"

Sanji smirks, digging in his apron for his cell phone. "I think I know who else would have  _what's-his-name's_  number."

Chopper perks up at that too, engaged. "Really? Who?"

"Luffy's brother."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Out with the old month of insanity, in with the new, and it’s twice as bad as the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for hanging around with me all these weeks!! I've started to get very busy with summer classes, so this is out a little later than usual, but I hope you enjoy. This chapter is a little shorter than they usually are because of that, but I'm making up for it by also posting a drabble to the shortfic today! Please enjoy, and thank you all so, so much for your kind words and everything. It means the world to me!! We're wrapping this crazy ride up here in the next few chapters, so hope you guys will stick around!! ♥

"Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it."

— **Dorothy M. Neddermeyer**

* * *

Law gets an opportunity to check his messages around ten o'clock to find that Ace has called. Frowning, he pushes a few buttons to get to his voicemails, grumbling at his cell the whole time under his breath.  _Stupid thing. Whoever said smartphones were smart was an idiot._

Ace's voice floats across in the crackling rasps of the speaker. "Hey, didn't need much. I'll swing by before work tomorrow to catch you. Later!" Law snorts. That had been rather brief.

Luffy's still snoring away on the table-bed when Law glances into their hobby room, so the taller man decides to make a fresh pot of coffee to soothe his addiction. As it drips, he leans on the countertop and flicks through his phone to call Ace back, stifling a yawn. Even though he has music playing softly in the background, when it's so quiet in the apartment, it's hard not to fall into a lull.

Ace doesn't pick up and Law thinks to himself that the brothers are impossible for about the hundredth time. He doesn't even know why he tries any more, honestly. Once the coffee pot beeps, Luffy jolts awake on cue – usually, the sound means breakfast is ready, even if it's shitty pop-tarts and almost-spoiled milk.

"What're you eating?" Luffy rubs at his eyes before bouncing into the kitchen and lying on Law's back. His boyfriend grumbles that it's too hot for his antics, but makes no move to toss him off.

"Nothing," The older man says, his deep voice rumbling through his back and onto Luffy's chest. "There's a piece of that cake from your party that's still in there, but it's probably stale by now."

The younger man scrunches up his nose and wraps his arms around Law's torso, running up his shirt in the action. "You know I meant meat.  _Meat_ , Torao. The most important part of  _every_  meal!"

Law toys with Luffy's hands before scowling. "Somehow, I knew that you'd say that."

* * *

The next day, Ace comes in with his friend, Marco, and Law rolls his eyes. He's got just as many friends as Luffy has and Law can't possibly keep track of all of them. The freckled man explains to the two of them that his friend is bringing him to work because his motorcycle's in the shop this week, but the older male of the couple is the only one listening. Luffy tugs Marco into their apartment with a big smile, rambling at him about something or another and Marco's grinning a little bit, messing with him. Law doesn't know why his internal assumption had been that Ace's friends and Luffy's wouldn't get along for some reason, but on second thought, he thinks that maybe people that are charismatically attracted to one stubborn brother are enchanted by the others as well.

Luffy shows Marco and Ace his tattoo and they congratulate him before ripping off their shirts for comparison. Those two have matching ones – apparently, they'd joined a startup corporation and the leader of the organization had been a biker himself. For the most part, their company,  _WBFabrics_ , serves as a supply store for many outstanding businesses. They've been known to make things for top-line fashion stores, restaurants, and many, many more, but even though both Ace and Marco serve as General Managers, they prefer to stay at warehouse headquarters, meeting new recruits and making sure the boss can keep track of his daily logs. Ace says they're both going to go into National Account Management soon, which means more travelling and less seeing  _Pops_  – their boss – but they have to learn how to fully take over the business,  _just in case_.

"Ah, but," Marco remarks playfully, "Pops is way too resilient to just keel over and die." Luffy clambers onto his shoulders after that while he grumbles about how bony his elbows are and gets his fauxhawk tugged on.

Ace sidles into the apartment like a regular and Law offers him a seat that he accepts. "How's your girlfriend?"

The freckled man looks up after flicking his eyes to his baby brother and his friend's antics. "Girlfriend?"

Law raises an eyebrow while he shuffles around the kitchen, reaching in the fridge for a cheese stick and offering Ace one before peeling back the annoying plastic wrapper. "I thought Luffy said you were seeing someone. An older girl." He's really,  _really_  terrible with names.

The other man throws his head back in thought and opens his eyes wide with a bewildered expression after a moment. "Makino?  _Jesus_ , I had a crush on her, what, twenty years ago?" Waving his hand and shaking his head  _no_  to the cheese stick, he flashes a winning smile. "She's got somebody else on her mind—always has. I was just a kid, y'know?" Grunting with a mouthful of cheese, Law makes a mental note to never trust Luffy on matters of the heart again. Noticing his inner distress, Ace chuckles. "It's no big deal."

Exploring the far-away look on Ace's face while Luffy screams at Marco to play video games with him and the older man tries to put the younger into a wrestling hold, Law swallows and sends him a look. " _Are_  you seeing someone? Not that it matters." He adds the last part as a disclaimer – some people are happier by themselves, and he's not one to judge. He doesn't even  _care_ , honestly, but Ace has been a good friend to him, and he owes him at least this much courtesy.

"No," Ace drawls, glancing to the side again. "Not really." Luffy cries out because Marco's touching his back, which is still sensitive from yesterday. Law furrows his brow and lets out a long, sardonic noise, drawing a line between the dots in his mind.

" _Huh_ ," the tattooed man murmurs with a sly smile. "You don't say."

Ace kicks him lightly under the table, looking just as sly. "Not a word out of you."

"Wouldn't dream of it." They both turn to watch Luffy battle Marco with tears in his eyes.

After another moment, Ace breathes, "You love him." Law's head whips around so fast that he's momentarily afraid that he's broken his neck, even if, subconsciously, he's aware that that is medically improbable. Smirking, he steeples his fingers on the tabletop. "What? I didn't promise the same in return."

"I—I don't…" Desperately searching for the words as he tries his damnedest to keep his eyes locked with Ace's to make his words more believable. "It's not…"

"You don't have to make up excuses." Ace smiles as Marco finally puts his little brother in his place and faithfully drags him to the table. "I know."

"Know what?" The blonde with the fauxhawk inquires while Law slides down in his chair, ears coloring and eyes downcast in embarrassment.

"Nothing important." Ace winks at Marco before kicking Law in the shins again for his attention. "Lu, where's your phone?"

Luffy scowls, brushing himself off. He digs in his pockets and continues frowning before backpedalling. "I'll check the laundry!"

Marco, Law, and Ace all shake their heads, unsurprised. "He's worse than a child," the oldest of the three, the blonde, comments blithely.

The two the same age mutter, "Tell me about it," and Ace takes a moment to look overly snarky at Law's mannerisms all over again, feeling victorious.

"Why are you  _here_ , anyways?" Law asserts himself as Marco takes a seat, feeling an awful lot like he lost—at what, he doesn't know.

"One of Luffy's friends called me." Ace delivers the news rather jauntily and Marco just sort of shuffles in his seat, watching the other two talk like an outsider. "Said something about some kid at the hospital. It was sort of jumbled and the reception was bad, but he made sure to let me know that I should ask you about it."

Law scowls, pondering. "A kid? Well, there's plenty of them there, but…"

"Ah, that's what it was," Ace suddenly remembers, slamming his right fist into his left palm. "He said something about a little girl…your cousin, maybe? I don't know. It was something like that."

 _Uh-oh_. Law feels his blood run cold and his skin heat up in the same moment, a terrible contrast of nerves and temperature to run into. It sucks the life out of him instantly. " _Sister_?"

"You have one?!" Luffy bounces back in the room excitedly, clambering into his spot at the table faithfully. "What's she like?"

"If she's younger than him, she probably gets on his nerves—like you, Luffy!" Ace guffaws and Luffy snaps, grinding his teeth in return. Marco, who is too busy paying attention to the blank-faced man with tattoos and piercings, tries to make conclusions with the information he's given and he doesn't like it one bit.

"Hey Ace," Marco says with a smile, trying to seem very casual. "Why don't we get out of here? If we don't hurry, we'll be late, and you know how Pops feels about that."

Ace scowls, frustrated by the interruption but once the blonde gives him a look, the brunette looks understanding and stands up. "Alrighty then." He spares a concerned glance for Law, who looks queasy, and for his brother, who is barreling out of the laundry room without a care in the world. "I'll catch the two of you later, then."

"You're leaving already, Ace?" Luffy pouts, but Marco's already grabbed Ace's hand to keep him from getting into a wrestling match or something equally plausible with his little brother. "Lame!"

"I'll be back soon, dork!" His older brother sticks out his tongue and his blonde friend tugs his wrist despite the brunette's grumbles. Luffy blinks and shrugs as the door closes and then he directs his dark eyes to Law.

"Somethin' the matter?" Law looks up at him, momentarily startled.

"Yeah…sort of."

* * *

Law spends most of the evening compulsively cleaning, attempting to think of the many reasons Sugar could have been trying to find him at the hospital. If his dad's still angry – well, considering that he wouldn't have sent Sugar out if he wasn't, there's no  _if_  about it – there's a hundred things he could be angry about. The one terrible similarity he and his father have in common is their ability to hold a grudge over something endlessly, and judging by the fact that he's wanted to come back and blow his father's house up any number of times, he can make a fair assumption that the older man will want to pay him the same respect. He tells Luffy that he'll figure things out soon, and maybe once his thoughts are collected, he'll think up a plan of action, but for now, he wants to be left alone to think. Luffy takes that as his cue to run out of the house for a couple hours, saying that he'd planned to spend some time with Shanks, anyhow.

Okay, so Doflamingo's pissed. What would Sugar have done if he  _had_  been at the hospital, anyways? Stabbed him by 'accident' and left him a letter saying that he better come home  _or else_? No use thinking about impossibilities. He needs to screw his head on straight and figure out what he's going to  _do_  about his father being on a warpath.

What would  _he_  do in his father's place? Ruin him, probably. Manage to mar his reputation at the hospital. Threaten his friends' lives. Destroy his lease for legal reasons and put him out on the streets. After everything else, he'd kill him. In a moment of sudden and terrible panic, he thinks back on his own thoughts and his heart hits a stop for a fraction of a second.

_Threaten lives. Luffy._

Nausea washes over him. Of course. He'd made the mistake of telling his father he was seeing someone.  _You moron!_  Doflamingo's first order of business would be to find out whom, exactly, Law is seeing. Luffy's an idiot, so if, for some reason, Doflamingo  _does_  find him, the first thing he would blurt out was that he was dating Law, even if it meant his ass was on the line.

Damn it. Sweeping slowly, Law stops himself from biting his nails only because his hands smell like bleach.  _How are you going to get yourself out of this one, hotshot?_

* * *

Shanks takes Luffy to the lake for the afternoon to grab lunch. The drive's just an hour or so, and Luffy's an excellent riding companion on the back of the motorcycle, singing along with his music until his throat goes raw and commenting that his helmet makes him feel cool when they slide off and shake the jitters out from the hum of the bike still going through their bones.

Once they arrive at the lake, Shanks rents a small boat for them to paddle out on along with fishing gear and a couple of floats for Luffy to play with. They get settled and revel in the lovely day before the red-haired man starts chatting aimlessly. "So, kiddo, how's life goin'?"

"It's great!" Luffy leans over the boat before his godfather plucks the back of his shirt collar between his fingers to tug him back. "Work is good, life is good. Wanna see my tattoo?!"

The redhead whistles and nods, smiling as Luffy lifts his shirt and he sees the brilliant linework of the tattoo. "Look at that beauty. You gonna be okay to get in the water? This still looks pretty fresh." Luffy looks at Shanks like he's never heard anything about how to take care of his tattoo, and the man rolls his eyes. "If it gets irritated, don't blame me, brat."

"Yeah!" Luffy fully pulls off his shirt and tugs floating bands around his arms, clips a life vest on, and pulls a swim tube and around his waist before jumping into the lake, splashing the man. Shanks laughs, kicks back, and digs around the boat for fishing gear while continuing to chat.

"I take it everything went well with your boyfriend?  _Someone_  tells me that you moved in with him recently." He pulls at wires and rods and scratches his arms between motions, all the while keeping a close eye on Luffy.

Luffy scoffs as he splashes in the water playfully. "Ace needs to learn to keep his big mouth shut." He dips down to suck in water and spit it out and Shanks grimaces. "Why's everybody so worried 'bout me and Torao, anyways?"

Shanks shrugs. "Maybe worried's not the right word." He casts his line to the side opposite of where Luffy is kicking around the boat. "Just wanna make sure you're the happiest you can be, kiddo. Make sure life's really making you smile—that's practically our job." He leans back and yearns for a beer that he does not have, grinning himself. "That's why  _I_  asked, anyways."

His young companion gasps and grins back. "You're so cool, Shanks!"

The man laughs. "I thought you would've grown up and gotten over your 'lame old second dad', honestly."

"What?!" Luffy kicks his way back to the boat with a scowl on his face and stars in his eyes. "Never! Who told you that? Ace?! Sabo?! Makino?!" While he huffs, Shanks throws his head back and laughs wildly. "They're wrong! You're the best  _ever_."

"Nobody  _told_  me anything like that, you brat," Shanks turns around and pokes the young man in the temple. "It's usually a fact of life. Kids grow up. They start thinkin' less of the people they admired when they were  _bigger_  brats. Well,  _smaller_ , actually." Shanks snickers as Luffy sticks out his tongue. "I'm glad." After a moment, he furrows his brow and his lips twist. "What's this about Makino? She's never said a bad word about you in her life."

"What if Ace told her something and she just  _passed_  it on by accident? Brainwashing!"

The redhead guffaws for a moment before wiping tears from eyes. "Really now! What an idea! Tell me more."

Luffy rambles on about his older brother's crazy plans to tease him by brainwashing everyone they knew into saying that he no longer appreciated his godfather. Shanks smiles and refreshes the bait every time he fails to get a catch, listening attentively and cackling like a madman.

It's a wonderful afternoon.

* * *

Law is still withdrawn when Luffy gets home in the evening, and the younger male frowns. "Still dumpy after all this time?"

Looking up as though pulled from a trance, Law's eyes widen. "I didn't hear you come in."

Luffy puts down his things and makes a face. "What the  _heck_. You hear like…everything. You hear it when I leave the bathroom and go into the bedroom when you walk into the apartment. Are you sick?" When he comes closer to check Law's temperature, Law tenses up and hopes to high heaven he can get his words straight.

It's so much harder when Luffy, looking at him so innocently and happily, is just giving him this  _look_. This look like he wants everything to be okay, like if Law tells him everything and just tells him to drop his life and move to Spain with him, he'd do it. It takes all of Law's strength to push down his real thoughts and desires. It  _hurts_. He'd gone so long just  _trusting_  and learning and now he  _loves_  him and he hates everything. Jealousy, self-loathing, and bitterness fill his head and he speaks before he can fully get his thoughts together. "You need to go."

"Go  _where_? I just got back!" Luffy huffs, at a loss as to what, exactly, is going on right now. Planting his hands on his hips. Law clenches his fists and keeps trying to explain himself.

"I mean we need to…to separate. For a while. I don't know."  _Shit. Could you be any more obvious that you're begging, here?_  "Please, just trust me."

"No." Luffy asserts, glaring strongly. "What's the  _matter_  with you? You really are sick!"

Law stands, using his looming height to his advantage. "We're breaking up. No discussion."

"We are  _not_ ," says the younger man, grasping his boyfriend's arm and forcing him to look at him by the jerk of the motion. "Look me in the eyes and say it again."

"We're…" Law's voice cracks and he looks at Luffy, who obviously doesn't believe a word that he's saying at the moment. "You heard what I said."

"You  _can't_  even look me in the eyes," Luffy claims proudly, looking rather smug despite Law's distress. "You just don't feel good, I know. It's okay. I'm not going anywhere."

"I need—!" The older man tries to calm himself, but he feels so frustrated he might cry. He restarts, "If you won't leave, then  _I_  will."

"It's  _your_  apartment!" Luffy tackles him to the floor angrily. "What is the matter with you?! You're never like this, Torao, doing stuff with no reason. That's my job!"

"I  _have_  a reason!" Law yells back, trying to keep himself from touching Luffy for fear of clinging to him. "I can't tell you because it's—!"  _It's dangerous and if I let anything happen to you, I'll never forgive myself._  "I just  _can't_  right now, Luffy!"

Law pushes Luffy off of him as quickly as he can and leaves. His eyes hurt and his head is pounding. He doesn't even have his cell phone, but his wallet's in his back pocket and he only knows one address that he's going to go to for the time until he can get his fucking life back together.

Reality dawns on him as he digs in his left pocket for his car keys, on the verge of hot, angry tears, and he knows that his life is never going to be 'back together' again. Ever. The least he can bank on is that Luffy  _hates_ being anywhere by himself, so there's a nearly perfect chance of him going back to his grandfather's house tonight, if only to avoid the area where they got into a fight.

Still, even though he wants to throw up, cry, and die a little, he knows he's doing the right thing. In the end, if Luffy's ignorant and  _safe_ , he's made the right choice.

Foot on the gas pedal and teeth fussing at his lips, he glances to the side and is disappointed to find the passenger seat empty, and he finally wipes his eyes with the back of his hand before gripping the steering wheel tightly and focusing on the road, determined.

He's going to find a way to get rid of his father before he can destroy everything.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What a fucking week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, not much to say this time. Hope that you're all still enjoying the story, and are also enjoying the sidefic, _Sunday Afternoon Chaos Theory_!! Have a wonderful weekend!

"Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'."

— **Ronald Reagan**

* * *

Bony hands make a muted  _'thunk'_  against the grain of a nightstand he doesn't recognize to turn off a buzzing alarm. After a moment where he groggily gains his bearings, he mutters, "Gimme a light." His hands keep moving to find the fresh box of cigarettes – it's still got plastic around the box, really, because he hadn't opened it properly when he'd chain-smoked three on his way over there last night. He'd had one more after their activities the previous evening, but he still hadn't bothered to get rid of the wrapping.

"Hang on a second, asshole." The redhead shuffles around before taking the taller man's hand and pressing the hot butt of his cigarette to the other. "There. Where's my thanks?"

Law rolls over to look at Kid with an apathetic expression. "In the trash," he replies dryly and the redhead snorts.

"You're so fucking ungrateful," The other man slumps back on the bed heavily, toying with some sort metal puzzle in between puffs of nicotine. "You're an awful fuck you're depressed, by the way."

"I am  _not_  depressed," Law drawls defensively. "And if that's how you feel, you should've done something about it last night, then." As Kid stands up, grousing, he finds a pair of dirty underpants on the floor and throws them on. After another moment, he throws Law's boxers to him as well.

"Not depressed my  _ass_." Kid snaps as he shimmies into a pair of mutilated jeans, clipping his keys around his belt loop after he zips his fly. "I saw the way your eyes glossed over when I got you off." Smirking at his old acquaintance, Kid burrows his hands into his pockets. "This is the first time I've seen you so…raw. I'm impressed. You're human like the rest of us, after all."

"Shut the  _fuck_  up," Law stands up after placing his burning cigarette in the ashtray, fists curling. "If you weren't doing me a favor, I'd kick your bastard ass to the opposite coast of the goddamn country."

Kid howls with laughter, holding his sides as Law stands and edges closer to him. "You can't even use your full vocabulary. Not so hot now, huh,  _Torao_?"

Bony fingers fly for Kid's neck in a rage, and Law seethes, face coloring and limbs trembling with fury. "You don't have the  _right_ —"

Kid stares contemptuously down at Law despite this dangerous position and laughs breathlessly. "See?" His hands slide down slowly, as he's unwilling to commit murder for some stupid reason like fighting with the redhead and getting called by that overly familiar nickname. "Your head's a mess." As Law slinks back to the bed, he picks up the remainder of his cigarette and Kid continues smugly. "Why'd you even come if you were gonna get so fucking broken up over it? I'm not here to be your pick-up lay when your usual's not puttin' out, Trafalgar."

Law glares sharply, flicking ashes at the redhead. "I didn't come for the  _sex_ , Eustass." Distantly, he continues, "I came here because I need a place to  _stay_."

Kid rolls his eyes. "Why, too many  _happy memories_  at your place?"

With grave somberness, Law murmurs, "Because I'm hiding from someone that knows where I  _live_ , asshole."

The redhead's lips fall into a scowl and he asks, "Who the hell did you piss off this time?"

* * *

"Hello?" The blonde picks up the phone with an oily smile. "Ah, don't worry about it. What did Baby 5 say?" He digs his nails into a notch in the desk absently, staring at the memo of utmost importance for this month:  _Destroy Him._  "Predictable, as always. Don't worry—I have a few ideas as to where he could have gone. Was anyone at the apartment?" The man reaches for a pen to scribble notes down in a handheld journal with a momentary scowl. "I suppose I'll give him credit for being thorough. Keep looking. You know his type. Comb the city. Ask around. I'm trusting you here." At that, the man ends the call.

Doflamingo reclines, tugging his coat around his shoulders with a shit-eating grin on his face. He's waited nearly ten years for this moment, and his son is finally going to experience what it  _really_  means to leave this family. As he chuckles to himself in amusement, a knock comes at the door and he tries to contain his glee for long enough to allow his guest in. Vergo strides in and the tall blonde man's lips curl up even further. "News?"

"Nothing too special." He slaps a photograph of Law's car abandoned in a lot down on the desk before sighing. "You have a flight to catch, unless that's been put on the backburner now as well."

"Who do you think I am?" Doflamingo pushes himself out of his reclining throne with a leer. "I'm a  _businessman_ , Vergo. I only divert from ventures if they're useless. I simply  _prioritize_  my engagements." He shrugs his coat on properly before opening his arms wide and flashing his teeth. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Vergo nods, eyes guarded by his sunglasses and lips twitching into an almost smile. "Of course, sir."

* * *

On the day of the fight, Luffy had rushed out of the apartment on impulse. He'd lifelessly cut off the lights and locked the door before his broken sandals slapped against the pavement and his feet took him to the nearest safe place he knew – Franky's shop.

When he bursts through the shop doors, huffing with exhaustion and brows furrowed with anger, Robin looks up from the clerk's desk and frowns with worry, pushing herself out of her chair to cradle him in her arms. "Luffy?" Just when she gets closer, Luffy slumps to the floor, bangs on the tiles for a moment, biting his lip, and then he sniffles, beginning to cry.

Robin fusses with her lip before whispering. "Hold on just a moment, Luffy." As quickly as she can, she locks the door, flips the sign to  _closed_ , and cradles him in her arms as his soft sniffles turn into full-blown sobs. "It's going to be alright. You're safe now."

" _Roooobiiiinn,_ " Luffy wails, swallowing his snot and tears with a gaping mouth. "I'm so…I don't know what happened! I've never been so mad that I've cried, and I can't stop!"

She shouldn't find that funny, but she chuckles just a bit while she rubs his back. "It's fine, Luffy. It's a fairly common reaction. Could you tell me what happened? Why were you so upset?"

"It's  _Torao_!" As he shouts, he snorts to hold his snot in his nose and clings tightly to her, reveling in her warmth. "He's so  _stupid._ "

"There's no rush, Luffy." She pats him and whispers  _hold on_  before standing up to get tissues. "Wait until you get it all out of your system and tell me properly, okay?"

"But I'm pissed  _now_ ," Luffy scowls and wipes his eyes and Robin giggles. After another moment, he accepts her offering of tissues and blows his nose loudly. Robin wanders around the shop until she finds Franky in the back, giving him a brief summary of what's happened in the last ten minutes, and he nods understandingly, saying that he'll come out and meet his bro after she's had her turn.

Robin comes back to find red-eyed Luffy blowing his nose with a tired glare. "Ready?"

"You're the one that told me to wait," Luffy murmurs. Robin joins him on the floor again as he sniffles.

"I know, Luffy," she says placatingly.

After a moment, her younger friend sniffles again and begins to speak quickly, stuck between angry murmurs and frustrated shouts. "He just  _left_. Without any explanation. He told me to leave after I  _just moved in_." Pounding the floor with glossy eyes, Luffy grows furious all over again. "I  _just_  know something bad happened to him and he won't let me in. He won't let me help." Letting his head fall in his chest, he clings ever tighter to Robin. "He doesn't like his family, and he doesn't want to rely on  _me,_ so I know he won't rely on his  _friends_ , either." Scowling, Luffy wipes his nose and draws his knees up against his chest.

Robin runs her fingers soothingly through Luffy's hair and she hums contemplatively. "He wasn't breaking up with you for something, was he?"

"He might have  _said_  he was," Luffy asserts in a huff, "but he couldn't even say that while looking at me. Besides, he was in a good mood this morning." Touching his back, Luffy grows introspective if only for a moment. Glancing up at Robin after he breaks out of his trance, he speaks to her in a rasped voice. "He was happy. He said so." Closing his eyes to think about Law smiling, he nearly whispers, "He promised." Clenching his fists again, he declares, "I won't believe it until he gives me a reason why."

"Well," Robin tries to understand, at a bit of a loss why Luffy's so certain that Law hadn't simply snapped and decided that he was done with their relationship, tries to get to the bottom of things. "There could have been  _something_  that set him off, right? Did the two of you fight often?"

Luffy scowls. "Yeah, but mostly 'bout stupid stuff. We made up right after those dumb fights, though, and Torao's real easy to read once you get to know him." Smiling, Luffy gestures to act out his impressions of his boyfriend. "When his brow's furrowed just like this, it means somebody pissed him off at work. When he doesn't sleep for three days, it's because he's trying to figure out how to pay someone back for something they did to him. When he asks to watch movies, it's because he's trying to take his mind off of whatever's bothering him." Counting the ways on his fingers, Luffy sticks out his tongue, starting to get bewildered. "Uh…he doesn't want to cuddle when he's got nightmares on the brain…whatever!" Luffy throws up his hands. "Anyways, you can  _see_  it. Something was bothering him all day, and it wasn't anything that I did, because he gave me this really cool tattoo the night before and he was super happy!"

"Hrmm…" The blue-eyed woman hums again, stroking her chin. "Nightmares, huh…? Isn't it possible that something from his past could have come back to haunt him?"

"Sleepy monsters aren't real, Robin!" Luffy asserts. "Gramps and Ace told me so!"

Laughing, Robin waves her hand. "No, no. I mean something from his past could have been giving him nightmares because it was terrifying. Whatever it was could have resurfaced – in the  _real_  world, of course – and he could be running from that. Do you know anything about life before you met him?"

Luffy sank. "No. You know I never ask about stuff like that. If his family treated him badly, I'll punch them all in their faces, though." Robin chuckles, knowing this to be true.

"You're a real knight in shining armor, Luffy." Robin smiles a twinkling smile before standing up and offering him a hand. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to try to find him, duh," Luffy says with a grimace, taking her hand and launching himself up. Smirking, he puts his hands on his hips confidently. "I don't have the first idea where to start, though!"

At that point, Franky comes out to see the two of them cackling together, completely prepared for a feelings jam and surprised to find them in good spirits. "What'd I miss?"

* * *

"You look stressed." Bepo hesitantly approaches Law in the break room. It's been a couple days since the gray-eyed man last came in, and before the weekend, he'd been thrilled to escape the living hell of hospital work. Bepo's concerned, because Law's foul moods are things to avoid. After a sniff, he frowns and edges closer. "Cigarettes? Thought you were trying to quit."

" _Trying_  being the keyword." Law puts his head down on the table with a long sigh. "I shouldn't even be here, but I had to put in an emergency leave form today and they wanted me on staff since I was available. Damn red tape."

"Emergency leave?" Law's burly friend tries to catch the thin man's shoulder and is shrugged off. "Is everything fine?"

With a glare in his eyes and a scowl on his lips, Law grunts back, "Yeah. Peachy."

* * *

When Luffy and Ace drive to the hospital where Law works a couple days after the big fight, they hear that he's declared emergency leave and they've just missed him. The apartment complex received money for his rent in lump sum for the next four months in cash, and his car is nowhere to be found. Luffy is furious at each turn of events, but worry claws at the pit of his stomach for Law, who shouldn't be by himself at a time like this. Ace does his best to keep his brother level-headed, but he knows that if he were in the same situation, he would hardly be able to focus, let alone go through the motions of work and life like Luffy's trying to do, if only because his friends have supported him the whole time.

As the week continues to drag on and Luffy grows dismal, Vivi shows up with an idea that isn't exactly suited for the time and place, but Ace thinks, when she shows up at their childhood home, she's got a good head on her shoulders. He's thought so for years, anyways.

"Luffy," Vivi offers tentatively, being careful with Luffy in his volatile state. "I know you're in no mood…but how about you come to the beach house with us? Nami, Usopp, and Kaya are coming…and I thought, maybe, you know, you could take your mind off of things. Maybe it would refresh you, and you'd have a better time…finding him." She smiles and waits patiently. Usually, Luffy would jump up at the opportunity and although he's a bit sluggish to reply, he does eventually smile back at her.

"Yeah. Maybe you're right. Torao's strong." After taking a deep breath and clearing his head, Luffy throws his hands up. "He'll be fine when I get back and drag his sorry butt home, right?"

Vivi smiles, feeling just a twinge guilty for distracting him from something so serious, but they've done everything they can so far. She only wants to be a good friend at this point, and no good can come from Luffy growing too angry and self-destructing. She will pray that his boyfriend is in good health while she and her friends attempt to cheer Luffy up. "Right."

"Go on, lil' bro," Ace says, pushing Luffy forward. "I'll keep looking for him while you're gone. Don't worry."

Turning to blink at his brother before tackling him to a ground in a hug, Luffy laughs with true joy. "You're the best!"

Ruffling Luffy's hair and pulling him off of his body, he chuckles. "I know, I know. Now go pack your stuff, brat."

"Pack  _what_? I'm goin' just like this. Let's go, Vivi!" Tugging the blue-haired young woman out of the house as she protests, he waves goodbye to his brother and hurries off.

Ace let his arm fall with a sigh, mind whirling. He knows a couple of resources that he could possibly try as a last resort…but one of them wasn't going to be pretty. He could only hope that Luffy would keep himself out of trouble during the trip, because if he didn't, it was just going to make his endeavors with a particular resource that much harder.

_What a troublesome little brother._

* * *

At Kid's house, Law toys with a lighter until he almost burns the tip of his left thumb, reclining uncomfortably on the impossibly tiny couch. When the redhead slinks in, hair matted down with sweat from a run, he scoffs at his appearance. "Still here?"

"I ditched my car – I already told you this." He mutters back darkly. After he puts the lighter down, his eyes train on a wireless phone in the corner of his eye. "You have a house phone?"

The other man snorts. "That some sort of crime?"

"Just rare, that's all. Don't get all defensive." Law stares longingly at the phone for another moment before he goes back to playing with the lighter.

"What, you ditch your cell, too?" He nods and Kid snorts, impressed. "You're really on the fucking run. How long can you even stay  _here_?"

"Don't know. Few days at best. Gonna have to pull some favors to get cash, camp out somewhere, get a new car, burnable phone." Kid stares at him until he smirks. "What? It's not my first time doing this."

"All of the sudden, our college life makes a lot more sense." The redhead joins him on the couch, sprawling his limbs out and intruding upon Law's personal space in an unwelcome manner. "What're you shying away for  _now_ , Trafalgar?  _This_  isn't our first time doing  _this_ , either."

"Don't feel like it tonight." Guilt still chews at Law for the previous evening, even though he'd known it had been fucking for stress relief more than anything else. His eyes unwillingly dart back to the phone in his pursuit to avoid looking at Kid.

Kid catches on to his silent cues, understanding why the other man can't seem to get his mind off of that damn phone. "Shit. You're really fucking crazy about that guy. I can't believe it."

Law glares back. "I'm going to piss in your car seats and set your garage on  _fire_. Then I'm going to trash your parlor, all to show you that fucking with me is going to earn you some serious repercussions."

"It's not my fault you didn't kiss your boyfriend goodbye or some other sappy shit," Kid mutters, slapping his feet on the coffee-stained table in front of the couch. "You can call him if you want. I'm not some sick bastard that won't let you do that much."

"I  _can't_ ," Law says, disgusted with himself. "I won't drag him into this mess."

"But  _I'm_  fine?" Kid jokes.

The other man snorts, replying in all seriousness. "Honestly, Eustass, if your apartment got blown up right now, I'd jump out of the window and say  _good riddance_."

"Every time you open up your mouth, I'm constantly reminded of exactly why I hate you so much."

* * *

Right as Doflamingo steps out of the car to catch his flight, he gives his final instructions to Baby 5, who is sitting in the back seat. "Remember your mission. Don't get distracted. And don't let your past  _mess this up_. Are we clear?"

"Crystal," Baby 5 murmurs back guiltily, wringing her hands restlessly. As the door closes and her father walks away, she slumps into the seat and the chauffeur drives off without paying her a lick of attention. As she thinks about pulling the trigger – something that she's done a hundred times before without a second thought – on her brother, she grows bitter. "Crystal, crystal clear."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe if everyone could stop freaking out and jumping to conclusions all the time, they'd all find the answers a lot sooner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry that this is a day late! My week between school, work, and the holiday just got away from me. I don't plan on this happening again, but here's the new chapter! Thank you all so much for your support! I have a couple FAQs in my end notes that I've answered. Enjoy!

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."

— **Anita Desa**

* * *

 

Robin and Franky head the discussion because they're the ones that have met him the most recently. The dark-haired woman opens with a foreboding air and the rest of the room's occupants grow tense.

"There's a chance that his boyfriend could have hurt him."

"Woah, woah, woah," Franky holds up his hands, clearly taken aback as well. "I thought the little bro was just upset because they got into a fight?"

"You really think that guy  _could_  hurt Luffy?" Sanji offers with a scowl. "Luffy's strong enough to knock just about anybody out."

"Besides," Zoro adds, arms crossed and legs up on the table. "Luffy's a terrible liar. If this kind of thing's been going on for a while, we would've been able to see it all over his expression ages ago."

Chopper ponders for a bit before speaking. "I haven't seen Luffy in a while, but the last time I saw him, he didn't look bruised or anything."

"I mean, I don't want to assume anything like that either," Franky adds with a scowl. "I don't think the little bro would ever date anybody like that, but…" He trails off to glance at Robin.

"You didn't see what he was like that night," She shudders. "I really don't want to believe that his boyfriend would do something like that to him, either, but seeing Luffy so broken down…it was the kind of thing that would make anyone feel terrified."

Sanji clicks his tongue angrily. "We're not going to find out anything just by talking about possibilities. Where is the guy right now? More importantly, where's Luffy? All he's talked about for the last few days is finding him. I wouldn't have been surprised if he burst in and tried to corral us into helping him comb the city. "

Zoro replies, "Ace said he went on a trip with Usopp and the girls to go take his mind off of things. What, you think we should track the guy down or something?"

"We can't just jump to conclusions and hunt the guy down," Franky interjects.

The room grows silent for a moment, then Robin speaks up again. "I don't even know if we should try to find him. We don't know much about him, do we? He could be dangerous."

After another moment, the green-haired man talks somberly. "We'll talk to Luffy about it first. If the guy's missing for too much longer, he could be in some serious shit, and whether he hurt Luffy or not, he's still running from something. Once Luffy gets back and tells us the real story, we decide whether we're calling the cops to arrest the bastard or to save him."

The blonde slaps him so roughly that the other man scowls and gets into a fighting stance. "I'm amazed that you said something so smart for once."

Zoro kicks Sanji in the shins and they break out in a fight before Franky steps in and pulls them apart with a sigh. "Boys, settle down." After placing them in their own corners, he continues, "I'm going to tell Brook about what's going on, see what he thinks. What are you guys going to do in the meantime?"

Chopper glances around the room until Robin finally smiles to ease the tension. "For starters, I'm going to ask around. Have any of you spoken to Ace in depth since this happened, or to Mr. Trafalgar's colleagues at the hospital?" The boys all shake their heads no, and she folds her hands in her lap. "Okay. Chopper, would you like to come with me?"

He nods his head eagerly and Sanji slumps, disappointed that he wasn't invited. Zoro kicks him and drags him out, saying the others should call them if anything comes up. Franky leaves shortly after everyone else, waving goodbye to Robin and Chopper.

Groaning to himself, he locks up the shop and heads out to his car, shaking his head. "What a mess."

* * *

"That's all you got?" Kid watches Law throw a tiny bag of stuff into the car with a scowl.

"I can't just drag a suitcase around when I'm running for my life." The brunette slams the door and falls into the passenger seat with a sigh. "Let's go. You'd better hope to hell that nobody at the parlor knows your plate number."

"Would you chill the fuck out?" The redhead lands in the driver seat smirking. "It's gonna be fine, runaway dickhead. Whose place are you going to?"

"Doesn't matter. You're not taking me there."

"What, you worried about me all of the sudden?" The other man scoffs and presses the gas pedal while he's parked to hear the rev of the engine.

Law throws Kid a disinterested glance as he reverses out of the garage. "It's plausible deniability. You don't really know where I am, so if he finds  _you_  and questions you, you'll be telling the truth."

"Huh. You really plan this shit out, don't you?" When he pulls up to a stop sign and shifts gears, he chances a look at the man wearing a dark, brooding expression. "This isn't the kind of easy shit to get out of like the old days, is it? You would've fucked somebody up past the point of no return if they threatened your lifestyle like this if you could've."

Law doesn't answer for a long time, simply digging in his pockets for a cigarette and his lighter and rolling down the window. Once he lights up and takes a drag, he murmurs, " _Could_  being the key word there, captain obvious."

Kid snorts. "See if I ever do you another favor. You owe me for all this, by the way."

"Look in your coat when you get back. I left you some cash."

He blinks and chuckles humorlessly. "Jesus shit. You paid me in  _advance_? You really think you're gonna die. I can't believe this."

"Shut the fuck up." Law grunts and blows smoke in his face before leaning his seat back and closing his eyes.

* * *

Luffy plays until he falls asleep in the car, draping himself over the laps of Usopp and Kaya, who became worn out by his restlessness. The last leg of the trip leaves Nami driving and Vivi chatting with her in low voices while the others rest.

"I just don't know what could have happened," Vivi wonders, absently fidgeting with the air conditioning vents on the passenger side. "Luffy was awfully upset."

"Robin sent me a message. Said they got into some sort of fight, and…Trafal-whatever told Luffy to get out, then he high-tailed it out of town. Hospital said that he came in a day or two after the fight and asked for emergency leave for an indefinite period of time, and he's been missing ever since. It's been over a week now. That's when I called you."

"I know  _that_." The blue-haired woman replies softly. "I mean, in his mind. I know he's having a good time now, but…"

"You know as well as I do that trying to figure out what's happening in Luffy's mind is a mystery. If he needs our help with something, he'll let us know, and we'll do everything we can." Nami turns and winks briefly at her girlfriend. "Right?"

Vivi beams back. "Right!" She clasps hands with the redhead over the gearshift and glances out of the window. "Looks like we're only about twenty minutes away."

"Just twenty?" Nami scoffs with a smirk. "You know better than that, Vivi."

"If I throw up in this car, you're cleaning it up."

Nami floors it with a huge grin and Vivi clasps her seatbelt for dear life.

* * *

"No, no…I'm way more worried about him than I am about Luffy." Ace winces as he stubs his toe on the edge of the cabinet and the person on the other line asks a question. "Of course not." The doorbell rings and he looks up after shaking his foot out. "Hang on, Marco…somebody's at the house. I'll call you back." He pads through the kitchen and to the door as he hangs up.

Robin and Chopper wait on the doorstep and Ace lets them in with a welcoming smile. "Hey! Hope you're not lookin' for Lu—he's out for the weekend."

"No, but thank you," the woman enters gracefully, chuckling as Ace automatically pours them glasses of their favorite beverages and Chopper, flustered, accepts his drink with a nod. "We actually wanted to see if we could speak to you for a short while, if that's okay? I'm sorry that we didn't call ahead."

"It's totally fine, don't worry about it!" Ace grins and ushers them into the living room with their glasses. "Let me get you guys some coasters." Once he puts coasters down on the tables next to the couch he takes a seat and speaks again. "So, what can I help you with?"

Chopper eagerly begins in a worried tone. "Do you know anything about what happened with Luffy's boyfriend? Do you think he could have hurt Luffy?"

"Law?" The freckled man blinks before laughing. "No way! He thinks the world of Luffy. You guys have no idea."

Robin is a little more relieved, but she searches for more details. "You don't think he could have been disguising his personality? He seemed like a pretty private individual."

"Hmm…" Ace thinks for a bit. "I don't know. I mean, I don't know much about the guy either—not about his family or his life or anything, I guess. But from what I  _did_  know about him, he seemed real meticulous, kind of a restless guy, but he wasn't  _unreadable_. I feel like if he'd been hiding something like that, I would have been able to pick it up. Besides, do you guys really distrust Luffy's judgment that much?"

At the question, both Robin and Chopper deflate, but the elder of the duo seems more relieved by her decompression than angry with herself. "If I'm reading too much into the situation, that's fine," she says with a smile. "I just wanted to hear it from someone that may have known about their relationship and known the man more personally than me."

"Ah," Ace realizes something in the moment. "Sabo told me that Luffy went somewhere right after the fight…your place?"

"He came to the shop, but yes." Robin looks down in a haze before steeling herself and holding Ace's gaze. "Luffy wasn't himself that night, and I'll admit that it scared me. Perhaps I'm being overly paranoid because I want to protect him." After a pause and a small chuckle, she stands up. "It's the least I can do."

"Thank you," the older brother stands to pull Robin into a hug, a sigh shuddering through him. "You don't know what it means, to have so many people looking after that idiot and making sure that he's okay. I mean it."

Chopper sniffles and wanders into their hug with tears in his eyes. "What are we supposed to do? What if Luffy's boyfriend's in some real trouble and we can't do anything? Luffy will be so hurt. I don't think I could watch Luffy cry."

"It's okay," Ace grips both of them tightly, hoping that his grasp exudes confidence instead of the restless emotions tumbling around his head. "I asked for help a couple days ago. Well, it's going to result in me getting my ass kicked, but it's worth it."

"What?" Robin pulls away just a bit to examine his expression and hold Chopper's hand as he wipes his eyes. " _You_  haven't gotten yourself in trouble to save your little brother's boyfriend, have you?"

"Hey now, he's  _my_  friend too, not just Luffy's boyfriend," Ace sarcastically quips before answering her question. "But not…exactly."

"You're not going to tell us about it, are you?" Robin murmurs before tentatively pulling Ace into a protective embrace. "Please be careful."

"Double-triple-super-extra careful!" Chopper adds, gripping Ace so tightly from behind that Ace wheezes that the kid's gonna have to let him go so that he can breathe. "If something happens to  _you_  and to his boyfriend…I can't…Luffy won't…"

"Don't  _worry_ ," the man pats Robin's head and ruffles Chopper's hair with a beaming smile. "Trust me."

* * *

Caesar claps his hands together and beams at Doflamingo. "It's a pleasure doing business with you, as usual."

"The same goes to you," the blonde man flashes his teeth and shrugs out of his heavy feather coat. "It's as hot on this island as always."

"Well, sir, since we've finished procedures a whole day early, you're welcome to lounge for a time." Vergo offers in his flat voice, and the other men turn to him, considering the prospect.

"Bahhh, there's nothing to do back in this shanty cave—unless you're interested in the experiments I'm running, or testing the potency of these drugs, of course." Caesar chuckles happily. "I can arrange for a boat to take you to the other side of the island. Drinks, drugs, business, fights – whatever you want to see, you can find it in that city, if you look hard enough. Or, if you're  _boring_ , you could just hit the beach."

"It is good to get out and do what the commoners do every once in a while, if only to remind yourself why you aren't  _among_  them," Doflamingo smirks and claps Caesar on the shoulder. "Don't you think?"

"Of course, of course," the taller man snickers and whips out his cell phone, arranging a boat ride for Vergo and their boss. "It will only be twenty minutes before the boat arrives. Would you like to sit inside in the meantime?"

Vergo glances at Doflamingo, who is standing with his arms spread out, sunglasses framing his eyes, and a large smile, as if the sun itself is giving him strength. "I think he'd rather wait out here, but thank you for your concern."

"No problem whatsoever," Caesar leers before slinking off to the cave. "Enjoy yourselves."

The waves crash and a breeze rolls through the blonde man, who speaks slowly and carefully. "You know…when we find Law, I think I'll kill him in a place just like this. Watch his brains spill on the rocks. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Very dramatic, sir."

"You're such a stick in the mud, Vergo."

"So I've been told, sir."

* * *

"This is fine." Law grabs his bag with a sneeze and slams the door.

"This is a gas station." Kid scowls as he leans out of the window. "You're serious."

"Of course I'm serious." The tan man with a goatee shoos the redhead away. "Now get out of here. I can't leave until you're out of sight."

"Look, Trafalgar, you're no friend of mine, but don't fuck yourself up too bad. I'd been looking forward to being the one to make you run to the ends of the earth and hope I'd never find you again, after all."

Law snorts before chuckling. "Of course you were looking forward to that kind of mindless, stupid thing. Get out of here before I change my mind about blowing your apartment up."

"Good luck, shithead!" Kid swings his car around and speeds off so quickly his tires leave marks and Law scoffs before smiling.

Once his car is absolutely out of sight, Law begins to walk in a different direction and immediately closes his eyes in resignation, sighing. "I'm assuming this is some sort of terrible accident. You wouldn't do this someplace so public otherwise."

A gun cocks against the back of his head but does not stay there long. "Sort of. I was on my way to find you. Guess you're not the only one with the devil's luck."

"Runs in the family," Law slowly turns, fully aware that a loaded gun is still pointed at him. "So, can we at least talk before you blow my brains out?"

"You'll run," his sister murmurs.

"I won't." He looks Baby 5 in the eyes, drops his bag and holds up his hands. "Promise."

Her hand shakes and she pulls the gun back just a bit, readily available in the event that her brother tries to run. "Well, start talking."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've had some FAQs, and there's no good place to stick these in, so I'll just add them here. By the way, the story will probably wrap up in 4-6 more chapters!
> 
> City Sunsets begins in late March in the present day. Honestly, you can think of it as whatever year you want, as long as there are cell phones. I didn't really set this in a particular city, but it is metropolitan and I live in the U.S., so it's definitely based off of that (ex: why the drinking age is 21).
> 
> Months of chapters are as follows (chapter # - month). YEAR ONE: 1 - March, 2 - May, 3 - May-Aug, 4 - Aug-Dec / YEAR TWO: 5 - Jan-Feb, 6 - March, 7 - May, 8 - June, 9 - June (con't). This chapter also takes place in June.
> 
> If there are any questions that you guys have that I have not answered, my sincerest apologies. Let me know and I'll do my best! Also, if you have any ideas for sidefic chapters, let me know and I will add them to the list. Have an amazing weekend and stay safe!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wheels are turning for all parties involved, and hopefully, they're just turning quickly enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late! Updates may continue to be sporadic for the last few chapters because of life circumstances, but rest assured, I will be finishing this up! Please enjoy, and have a wonderful day!

"Life equals running and when we stop running maybe that's how we'll know life is finally finished."

— **Patrick Ness, _The Knife of Never Letting Go_**

* * *

The crickets are squeaking in their usual awful tones and Law's pants are sticking to him in the city humidity as he speaks. "Well," he starts, in an even worse mood than he naturally is by disposition. "Let's talk." His long legs drag him to the curb where he falls dramatically and his sister sends him a look. "And would you put that thing in your purse already? What if somebody walks by?"

Baby 5 heaves a sigh before doing just that and joining her brother on the concrete. She ruffles her skirt before sitting airily, flicking her hair over her shoulder with manicured nails. "I should have killed you by now."

Law lazily pulls out two cigarettes and a lighter, offering one to the woman. She grimaces, but accepts and he professionally offers her the flame once she puts the nicotine to her lips. "I know." He drawls a long puff and lets his head fall on one open palm. A heavy silence falls between them as they drawl and smoke, nostrils flaring with the effort. "Dad sent you?"

"Why else would I be coming after you with a gun pointed at your back?" Baby 5 murmurs with disappointment. After another moment she glances at him warily and clutches her bag, feeling for the firearm through the material. "You never should've fucked the old guy over like that."

Her brother snorts. "Or what? He'd try to control me from the inside?" Law drags and both siblings share a humorless chuckle. "You know as well as I do that I was just doing what I had to do." He spares the longhaired woman a weary sideways glance. "You don't exactly  _trust_  Dad either, and don't even try to bullshit me on that."

Baby 5 grimaces and tenses up at that. "That kind of shit is exactly what's got you on the run. You can't break family promises."

"I was  _seven_  when I made that promise," Law mutters angrily. "I thought I was king of the fucking world. I thought Dad walked on water, so  _of_  course I promised him. When I decided to bust out and get out the control freak's hair, stop messing up people's lives, stop stealing and shit, I thought that  _maybe_  the least he could do for his  _bastard child_  was leave me the hell alone."

"It was never that easy," Baby 5 grabs his hand tightly, looking both stern and on the verge of tears. "Dad  _waited_  for years for an apology, but all you did was shit on him. It wasn't fun for the rest of us to deal with the repercussions, either."

Noting her terrified tone, Law stops heaving angry breaths and wills himself to calm down. "Shit. I'm sorry." His hands tremble at the notion of the pain his sister must have gone through, knowing well what sort of psychological mind games their father liked to employ his children. "You need to get out of there. Run with me."

"Run  _where_ , Law?" Baby 5 bravely sighs, scowling deeply around her cigarette. "You know as well as do that you can only run for so long from the underworld's grip."

"I  _do_  know," Law stubbornly retorts. "Which is why I had a plan. Obviously I wasn't moving quickly enough…but if you help me, I  _know_  we can make this work. At least listen to me, please."

She searches his gray eyes for hesitancy and throws up her hands when she finds none. "I'm only listening to this for five more minutes. Five, and only because you asked so nicely! I don't think I've heard you say  _please_  to me since you were three."

"I'm not going to have time to say it again if you don't hurry up and decide whether you're going to help me or blow my brains out, Baby 5." Taking his point, she shut her mouth and bit down on her cigarette, nervous already.

* * *

 

Nami and Vivi decide to bring the car around the side of the villa and unpack together with Kaya, but the boys are restlessly leaping around and even though all three of them would be perfectly content to relax and take a nap for a bit, they feel compelled to shut the boys up by listening to their wishes and heading to the beach.

Once the five of them arrive at the beach, Usopp undertakes the mission of fitting Luffy with the appropriate floating devices, knowing good and well that he can't swim. The others warn him that, despite the numerous assisting floatation that he shouldn't wander too far out offshore, but warning Luffy is often as useless as trying to survive without breathing and they don't bother wasting precious oxygen.

Kaya sets up the large umbrella that they had brought in the large car they brought from the villa while the redhead and the blue-haired young woman get the snacks and stuff ready for beach lounging. Nami sets her towel just out of the way of the umbrella's shade, pulling out a novel and sucking in the salty breeze, serene near the ocean. Vivi and Kaya, pale and tender-fleshed, lather on sunblock before reaching for snacks and lounging underneath the umbrella, watching the boys splash each other madly in the water.

Their laughter is pleasant and infectious, and Nami even looks up from her book to chuckle. "Think they're can play capture the flag with just the two of them?"

"Well," the blonde woman grins knowingly. "It never seems to bore them to try." At that, all three of them laugh pleasantly and return to their relaxation.

* * *

 

Ace paces the room impatiently, rightfully worrisome. He knows how this situation is going to play out. For the thousandth time, he reminds himself that this is for the good of his little brother and the friend he's made of his significant other, damn the bruises.

As if sensing his growing anxiety, the door flies open, woodwork nearly breaking his nose as his grandfather enters, furious, clutching his collar. "Where's Luffy?!"

"I already told you that he went to the beach!" Ace yelps, trying to pry his grandfather's hands off of him. "Let me breathe, old man, so I can talk!"

Garp drops his elder grandson and huffs through his nose. "Explain. Three sentences max."

The freckled man coughs and pats his chest, struggling to pull words out of his throat. "Need you to look up info on Luffy's boyfriend. Law  _and_  Luffy could both be in life-or-death kind of trouble."

Fingers furl and unfurl before the old man turns on his heel and plops onto the couch like a prowling cat. "Tell me the whole situation again."

* * *

 

The blonde man folds his arms behind his head in a languid pose, looking forward to his daughter bearing good news upon his return. Even if she doesn't have Law's head on a spike (and goodness, how medieval is  _that_  notion), at the very least, she'll have a trail that he can follow very soon, with more hired guns and people sniffing out his son than the boy will ever be prepared for. If he's feeling particularly malicious, he might send even more of Law's siblings on his tail, for the sheer pleasure of hearing about his prodigal son's reaction to their advances.

On the small boat, Doflamingo kicks his feet up onto the banister from a lounge chair on the deck and heaves a gratified sigh. The sun bears down on his tan face and he can't stop his hands from slipping out of his dyed-blonde locks as his arms spread apart, taking in the sun like it harnesses energy for his body. "How much further to shore, Vergo?" He contemplates whether he can manage a drink in the time before they hit the more gorgeous part of the coast.

"Probably half an hour, sir," The stoic man replies in his gravel tone. His boss smiles brightly before taking the cooler lid off.

"Plenty of time then."

* * *

 

Garp and Ace are surrounded by dozens of crumpled papers, looking as harried and crazed as two pit bulls wired on energy drinks. Ace finishes collecting Law's 'non-existent' criminal record, while the elder male has his family history splayed out in some arrangement that could, with imagination, be called a timeline. The family history isn't a small one by any stretch.

Donquixote. Criminal empire, generations old. Apparently, Law had been the newest member – one of only three of Doflamingo's birth children, each born to illicit relationships with women outside of his flimsy marriages. The rest of the young adults and children at the mansion were adopted.

Apparently, Luffy's boyfriend  _could_  have been in a lot of trouble back in the day. Forgeries, larceny, kidnappings – it's all there in files that don't exist in anyone's records, except for the talented and hidden people in the Federal Bureau of Investigations who kept track of  _everything_ , even the non-existent stuff.

Along the lines of finding out that Law had left the life before his first scheduled hit, they dig up nastier and eviler dirt about Law's family and Ace's stomach turns. "And they can do this? They have the funds and the power to just…bend the law at will?"

"More than that," Garp breathes, his hand settling on a weathered photograph of Doflamingo. "If he wants to kill his own kid for running away from home, there won't even be a news report out about it in the morning."

"What can we do?" The old man quickly punches the younger man in the shoulder, both to silence him and to blow off steam.

"We're gonna go find your dumbass brother and drag him home, that's what," Garp barks out instructions and straightens his back, brow furrowed with worry. "We'll get some agents out to look for Law, maybe help him run from his family. Chances are that asshole's not going to stop at just his son—he's gonna kill anyone in the way and anyone that would torment Trafalgar's dreams in the afterlife, too, and we're gonna nail him first."

"You think Doflamingo's being keeping tabs well enough to track Luffy down on the beach?" Ace sounds partially dumbfounded and unsure of his words, but the records in front of them don't seem to lie and he can't deny the panic creeping up the back of his throat. "He's been gone for hours, we'll never catch up to him in time."

"Stay calm." His grandfather asserts quietly. "Us freaking out is exactly what he wants. I've already called the beach police, see if they can make sure the kids stay off the coast and out of harm's way for a while, since he's there. Ace, call your friends and whichever of Luffy's friends you can get a hold of, make sure they're not thinking about looking for him any more. This is out of their hands."

Ace heaves a long sigh as he stands, lips curling. "Shit, gramps. I'm sorry this happened…I was supposed to be keeping watch and then this…"

Garp shakes his head before ruffling his grandson's hair affectionately. "Not your fault," he grunts. "I've known about Trafalgar's history this whole time; should've kept a tighter watch on you kids. His father's no one to mess around with. I knew that Trafalgar cut ties…but I should have predicted that Doflamingo wouldn't exactly take his kid running out of the house and taking precious family secrets with him with no repercussions whatsoever." In a stretch, he hurries to the door and sends Ace one last furtive glance. "I know you're strong…but be careful. No rash decisions this time." He'll be glad if Ace listens to him for once. "There'll be time for punishment after this family's safe and back together."

As if sensing the gravity of the situation, Ace simply nods before his grandfather strides out of the house. Once he's gone, he makes a dozen phone calls, leaves hasty messages, and whirls out of the house.

* * *

 

Luffy nearly slips on his float before Usopp catches him and pulls him closer to the shore so his feet can touch the sand. A moment before he can slap his back and laugh the moment off, Luffy's ears perk up at the sound of a whistle and several authoritative figures approach. The girls all look disgruntled at their afternoon rest being disturbed.

"What's up?" Luffy directs his curious gaze to Usopp, who's reading the signals of the guy waving at them.

"Dunno," Usopp squints with a frown, continuing to push Luffy's float to the shore. "Something about clearing the beach…not real sure why, though."

Luffy waddles out of the ocean with a long whine, gathering his floats around him as he drips on drier sand. "Aww." His eyes glance around and he catches a boat at the edge of his vision. "Those people are gonna want the message too, right?"

"I'm sure they'll figure it out when they see everybody leaving," Usopp grumbles, tugging his friend's arm. "Come on, let's go before Nami starts yelling at us."

For some reason, Luffy's eyes are still glued to the boat in the distance, catching sight of a tall man and a pink coat and he scowls. His attention is immediately diverted by the girls rushing him to pack up, but something about the sight sticks in his mind for a longer than usual. But then he shrugs and resolves to forget it in order to fold away the umbrella.

* * *

 

"That's the stupidest plan that I've ever heard," Baby 5 gapes incredulously at her brother. "You're  _serious_."

"We've got to make it look like his idea," Law insists. "Look, if it doesn't work, what do you have to lose? Say that I tricked you when we get caught and shoot my brains out. But if I'm  _right_ , we're all free, with no records. We can go clean."

"I don't  _want_  to go clean," Baby 5 grabs her brother's collar. "I just don't want to kill  _you_ , Law."

"Even better. If you keep the underground business running once I'm finished, that'll keep his goons off my tail. You get to be in charge, Dad's out of the way, and the underworld is still in the palm of your hands."

She has to admit that it's not a bad deal. "I'm still not buying it."

"It's now or never. Shake on it or I knock you out and get a head start." Law jams his palm in her face so that she can't deny its' presence.

"Damn it," She curses around a fresh cigarette, slapping his hand out of the way. "You know how much I  _hate_  turning down someone who needs my help. You're a shitty baby brother."

"But you like me enough to do it anyways," Law murmurs pleasantly, kicking himself up off of the pavement before offering her a hand. "Now that I've got a plan, give me your phone."

Baby 5 mutters and grumbles before doing just that, and seconds after he has it in his hand, he crushes the device, much to her surprise and indignation. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"We can't be followed after all this effort." Law snorts. "Now come on." She follows him, stomping her heels every step of the way, resenting her decision in the wake of her broken cell phone and hoping against all hope that she won't regret this in the coming days.

Law leads the way through a shadowy underbrush to another ally's home, hoping that she'll put them up for long enough to see the second part of his plan come into action.


End file.
